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PUBLISHED BY THE ST/S^OARD OF TRADE 

SAM FRAMCI5C0, CAL. 



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There's no place like home'— 

in Calif ornia 



The Land of Sunshine, 
Fruit and Flowers 




%• We have the exclusive handling of large properties 
throughout the GOLDEN STATE, including the lands 
of the famous QATHdRiNQ the orange crop. 

Stanford Estate, . Mitchell Estate, \ 

^ ^ Embracing ALL KINDS: 

Bank of Woodland, ... and the .. . V Grain, Grazing, Fruit, Hill, and 

Palermo Orange Grove Lands. ) ^^"^^ ''^"''• 

WE CAN SUIT LARGE OR SMALL BUYERS OUR PRICES ARE THE LOWEST 

S^ For MAPS, Prices and Particulars, address 

McAFEE BROS., 108 Montgomery Street, SAN FRANCISCO 



CojDXX /Cle 0/U). 







W/^/U- 







ALIFORNIA 



EARLY HISTORY : COMMERCIAL 
POSITION : CLIMATE : SCENERY 
FORESTS : GENERAL RESOURCES 
IRRIGATION : MINING : AGRICUL- 
TURE : HORTICULTURE : OLIVE 
CULTURE : CITRUS CULTURE 
THE SUGAR BEET : RAISIN GROWING : TRANSPOR- 
TATION : FRUIT CANNING : DAIRYING : POULTRY 
RAISING : FLORICULTURE : LIVE STOCK : SHEEP 
HUSBANDRY : FORAGE PLANTS : EDUCATION 
RELIGION : POLITICAL STATUS : IMMIGRATION 
CALIFORNIA AND THE INSANE : LICK OBSERVA- 
TORY : SAN FRANCISCO : LAND VALUES : VITICUL^ 
TURE : FOOD FISHES. 



" 'Tis the land of the morn-bright mountains 

With the purple vales at their feet; 
Of the clear, swift-flowing fountains 

And rivers of waters so sweet; 
Of the deep wood bowers entwining, 

Of the cataract's sounding roar, 
Of lakes in splendor shining, 

And the pine-trees whispering o'er." 



1897-98. 



CAIvIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE), 
SAN FRANCISCO, CAI,. 



i£. S. Crocker Cotnpany, Fi-intcrs, *'. F. 



THE EMPIRE BEYOND THE ROCKIES. 

Some of its Me wspapers— Xlne Los A^ngeles Times. 

From "American Journalism," a notable book recently from the press of the Holmes 
Publishing Company, New York, the following extracts are taken: 

(P. 285): The notable newspapers of the Empire beyond the Rockies are the Salt 

Lake Tribune and Herald; the San Francisco Examiner, Chronicle, Call and Bulletin; the 
Oakland Enquirer and Tribune; the Sacramento Bee, the Portland Oregonian, the Seattle 
Post-Intelligencer and the Los Angeles Times. The last belongs to the big four of the 

Coast, namely, the Examiner, Chronicle, Oregonian and Times To average advertisers 

the one hundred thousand population of Los Angeles equals in value two hundred and 
fifty thousand population anywhere else. It is a city of beautiful homes. In a city like this 
one expects newspapers of the best Eastern stamp, and he is not disappointed — in one in- 
stance at least The Los Angeles Times is unique in the fact that, while being the high- 
est class newspaper in the West, it has the largest circulation in its territory The large ad- 
vertisers and prominent people whom I interviewed in Los Angeles gave The Times 
a pre-eminent place. It has half to a third more circulation than any paper in the Southwest, 
and carries more advertising than the other three Los Angeles papers combined 

(P. 344): The Times belongs to the short list of America's greatest newspapers. It 
deserves to be mentioned with the New York Tribune under Horace Greeley, the Phila- 
delphia Ledger under George W. Childs, the Chicago Times under Wilbur F. Storey, the 

Chicago Tribune under Joseph Medill Not more than two or three newspapers in the 

United States have anywhere near as much success in proportion to their field, or such a 
lead over their competitors. Every large advertiser in Los Angeles places the Los Angeles 

Times incomparably first in its own field "It is the best newspaper west of the Rocky 

Mountains," said a prominent citizen of California. "There are only three newspapers on 
the Pacific Coast that have paid during the last few years, and The Times is one of them," 
said a well-known journalist who has studied this question from the inside. "The most 
gratifying thing about The Times is the fact that it is a high-class paper that caters only 
to the best elements in the community, and yet it has very much the largest circulation in 
this field. "We spend all of our appropriation in The Times," said the largest local adver- 
tiser in Los Angeles, a firm that does a business of three-quarters of a million dollars 

and spends $30,000 or $40,000 in advertising annually The Times carries an enormous 

amount of advertising at exceedingly good rates. It has from 25 to 35 columns of advertis- 
ing daily, and from 85 to 140 columns on Sundays. Its classified or "liner" advertising 

reaches from 7 to 9 columns daily, and from 27 to 35 columns on Sundays It is only in 

Chicago and Washington that advertisements are set as well as those in the Los Angeles 

Times Sortie of its announcements suggest the best "ad" writing in the East The 

Times gets up its "liners" better than any paper in the country, except the Washington Star. 
"Brains" (New York) frequently reproduces handsome display advertisements from The 

Times, which abound in originality and artistic effect, yet are never freaky The Times 

suggests the best dailies in the largest cities. It has a very complete news service — the 
Associated Press and a great deal of special correspondence. It prints from 10 to 16 pages 
daily, set on 12 Mergenthaler machines. It is printed on a Hoe double insetting press— the 
•'Old Guard"— and on a special press, the "Columbia," both built by R. Hoe & Co. ["Colum- 
bia II," a quadruple machine, has since been added.] It is a complete newspaper establish- 
ment, up to date in everything The Sunday Times is a 28 to 36-page paper The 

Times is one of those papers that prints the news, and a great deal more than the news, but 
never distorts the news 

In the absence of Colonel Otis, on a trip East, I interviewed Mr. L. E. Mosher, the 

vice-president Mr. Mosher called my attention to the detailed statement of The Times 

circulation It is the most complete circulation statement made by any newspaper in the 

United States It gives the total number of copies circulated each week, and the daily 

average. Under about 50 sub-heads it shows just how many papers go each day in the week 
to every town or news agent that takes over 20 newspapers daily, and it summarizes 86 
other towns that take in the aggregate about 700 copies of The Times daily, and it gives the 

names of these 86 towns It also tells how many papers go to the newsboys, the news 

companies, to California subscribers and to Eastern subscribers. It prints the afiidavit of 
the Superintendent of Circulation and the affidavit of the pressman. The pressman swears 
as to how many copies are printed each day in the seven. It quotes the law which makes 

It a penal offense to misrepresent circulation for the purpose of obtaining patronage The 

Times has never attempted to gain readers or popularity by cheap methods, but it has 
done much for Los Angeles. 

Los Angeles was not an extensive community in those days— 1881-82 [when the paper 

was started]. The Times was a potent factor in its growth [the city has grown from 12,000 
in 1882 to 103,000 in 1897], but The Times has grown faster than has Los Angeles. I don't 
mean to say that it has outgrown its field, but it certainly has so thoroughly filled it as to 
leave no room for competition. 

[The subscription price of The Times, which is a seven-day paper, is 75 cents per 
month, or an average of 2>4 cents per copy to regular subscribers. Its circulation averaged 
during the eight months of 1897, up to August 31st, 19,004 copies daily; the Sunday circula- 
tion averaged, during the same period, 25,015 copies.] 



INTRODUCTION. 



THIS book was planned, and is published, for the purpose of affording answers to inquiries 
which naturally arise in the minds of intelligent strangers concerning the land in which 
they are visitors. The articles it contains were prepared, at the solicitation of the California 
State Board of Trade, by the most eminent and distinguished writers of the State, especially 
qualified to present, in a comprehensive but condensed form, the various subjects assigned them. 

It anticipates and answers a broad range of questions on the part of the intelligent stranger 
who desires xo be made acquainted with the industrial, commercial, social, moral, educational, 
and religious conditions of the country he visits, as well as furnishes information to the home- 
seeker, whose desire and duty it is to know something of the sia^us of civilization with which 
he is to cast his lot, and of the present and prospective prosperity of the commonwealth of 
which he desires to become a citizen. 

The gentlemen whose names are signed to the articles herein published need no introduction 
to the public, and many of them possess national reputation. But as a courtesy to the stranger 
who may desire to know something of the author whose work he reads, a brief summary of 
articles and authors is presented. 

The "Historical" chapter is written by D. R. Sessions, for many years a student of the 
history of the Pacific States and Spanish-American provinces. 

"The Mining and Minerals of California," by Charles G. Yale, a pioneer miner and collector 
of mining statistics, and a leading mining expert. 

"Mines, and the Record of Production of the Best Mines in the State," by C. E. Uren, an 
accomplished mining engineer. 

"The Art of Agriculture as Practiced in California" was written by Alfred Holman, editor 
■of the Rural Press, a native of the Pacific Coast, an experienced journalist, accurate observer, 
and entertaining writer. 

The article on the Wine Industry of California is from the very facile pen of Charles A. Wet- 
more, who for many years has given this subject profound study. Whatever he writes upon the 
subject is accepted as authority among all persons intelligent on the subject of wine-growing. 

One of the most valuable contributions to this work is an article from the pen of David Starr 
Jordan, President of the Leland Stanford University, on the Food Fishes of California. Dr. Jordan 
needs no introduction to the scientific world. 

The chapter on "Irrigation" is by C. E. Grunsky, civil engineer, assistant to the State 
Engineer for many years, learned in his profession, and thoroughly familiar with the subject. 

"The Horticulture of California" is treated by Professor E. J. Wickson, professor of horti- 
culture in the State University. 

The article on "The Climatology and Meteorology of California" is by Professor E. W. 
Hilgard, professor of agriculture in the State University. 

The chapter on the subject of " Inmiigration " is from the pen of Col. John P. Irish, a well- 
known publicist, and a gentleman of national reputation. 

"The General Resources of California" are exploited by General N. P. Chipman, a profound 
student of the industrial resources of the State of California; a distinguished lawyer, now holding 
the position of Supreme Court Commissioner. 

"The Commercial Position of California on the Map of the World" is from the pen of 
Captain William L. Merry, Secretary of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce. 

"The Past and Present Status of Education in California" is by Professor Martin Kellogg, 
President of the State University. 

"Scenic California" is from the graphic pen of John Muir, the distinguished geologist, well 
known in scientific circles throughout the world. 

"The Forests of California" are described by Charles Howard Shinn, of the CaHfornia 
State University. 

The chapter on "Transportation" is carefully and thoughtfully prepared by Mr. W. G. Curtis, 
civil engineer and assistant to the General Manager of the Southern Pacific Company. 

"The Indigenous and Adopted Flora of California" is by Professor Emory E. Smith, of the 
Stanford University. ) 

"Dairying in California" is by Samuel E. Watson, President of the State Dairymen's 
Association. 

"Poultry Raising, in California," by J. A. Finch, a gentleman of broad, practical experience 
of the subject he treats, both in the East and in this State. . - : . . ., . 



4 CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 

"Sheep Husbandry in California," by John H. Wise, Collector of the Port of San Francisco, 
a large and extensive wool-grower, a pioneer of the State, and a gentleman of accurate observation. 

"The Political Status of California as Determined by Election Statistics" is by the Hon. 
Horace Davis, ex-Member of Congress and a staMstician of distinction; late President of the 
University of California. 

"The Culture of the Olive," by Elwood Coop.-r. Mr. Cooper was the pioneer olive-grower 
of the State, and occupies a leading position as an authority on all horticultural subjects. 

"The Live Stock Interests of California," by Charles M. Chase, President of the State 
Agricultural Society, 

"Citrus Culture in California" is from the pen of I. N. Hoag. Mr. Hoag has been a writer 
on agricultural subjects in the State of California for more than forty years. 

"The Sugar Beet Industry of California," by Claus Spreckels, will attract wide attention. 
Mr. Spreckels is an undoubted authority. 

The article on "Raisin Growing" is by Colonel William Forsyth, an experienced raisin 
grower of Fresno, California. He describes with fidelity the methods of cultivation, and gives 
interesting statistics of the commercial results of that object of culture. 

"The Indigenous Forage Plants of California" is by Will S. Green. United States Surveyor- 
General of the State of California, and a pioneer writer of distinction. 

"The Fruit-Canning Industry" is by J. H. Flickenger, one of the most successful orchardists 
of California. 

"The Lick Observatory, and Its Contribution to the Science of Astronomy," is from the pen 
of Prof^essor Edward S. Holden, the astronomer in charge of the observatory. 

"The City of San Francisco" is by Edwin H. Clough, a well-known journalist of the State, 
a graphic writer, and a thoughtful observer. 

"California, and the Insane," is by Dr. A. M. Gardiner, Superintendent of the Napa Insane 
Asylum. This article is presented to answer the charge that the climatic and other environment 
of California superinduces insanity. 

"The Status of Religious Thought in California" is from the pen of Horatio Stebbins, Doctor 
of Divinity, who has occupied the pulpit of a large and influential church in the City of San 
Francisco for thirty-two consecutive years. 

Attention is called to the article in this publication entitled "An Analysis of Land Values of 
California," in which the present status of land holdings and values is fully discussed. 

In addition to these thirty carefully prepared articles will be found a brief statement con- 
cerning the numerical strength, the property values, number of ministers and the number of 
churches of the various religious denominations; also, statistics relating to finance, production of 
precious metals, agriculture, horticulture, mines and mining, commerce, fraternal organizations, 
social clubs, women's clubs and other industrial and social features, from which the inquiring 
visitor will be able to derive answers to a very broad range of intelligent inquiry. 

While these articles will answer anticipated inquiry, they will not be devoid of interest to 
the people of the State of California. 

Notwithstanding the broad field covered, it may not be out of place to remind the intelligent 
visitor that the American settlement of California was induced by an ardent and expectant search 
for gold; that when he measures the progress California has made in field-culture, he must keep 
constantly in mind the fact that its first occupants and inhabitants had no faith in its agricultural 
resources. Men are naturally intolerant as to the differences they encounter between the countries 
with which they are familiar and those they casually visit. Moreover, men, in seeking new homes, 
seek those where the industries they have pursued in the old are the standards of industry in 
the new. Of the truth of this every individual has a witness in his own mind. We are not 
attracted to the countries whose objects of culture are wholly unfamiliar to us. When a:n exhibi- 
tion is spread before a spectator, that portion of it with which he is familiar and the result of 
that industry in which he is engaged will be most attractive, because it will be under the most 
familiar and intelligent observation. The people of the Temperate Zone, skilled in the field- 
culture possible in the latitudes of their nativity, find strangely unfamiliar objects of cultivation 
unattractive, when the proposition to engage in the cultivation of the unfamiliar object is under 
consideration. It is for this reason that men migrate upon the latitudes of their nativity. They 
seek new homes with more favorable environment for personal prosperity, but they do not seek 
a change of industry, which involves the abandonment of that with which they are familiar for 
the adoption of that which is new. They feel a confidence in the skill and judgment which 



INTRODUCTION. 5 

observation and experience have ripened in their minds, so long as the question of engaging in 
industries already familiar is presented; but they naturally lose that confidence when methods of 
agriculture and horticulture, relating to unfamiliar productions, are a part of the problem involved 
in the change of residence. 

The agricultural and horticultural possibilities of California were a sealed book to the pioneer 
population of the State. The seasons for seed time and harvest were new and strange. The 
art of agriculture as it was known and practiced by themselves and their fathers was inappli- 
cable here. This is not to be wondered at. The time of growth and verdure, as'- known to them, 
was from the spring month of April to the October of autumn. Then followed a winter of death 
to vegetation, a period of slumber, in which all growth was bound in icy chains and laid to 
sleep in the cradle of winter. To them, spring with its seed-time, summer with its ripening suns, 
and autumn with its golden harvests, meant certain specific months of the calendar. They found 
these months of the old calendar the winter of suspended animation in California. Instead of 
the June of verdure and blossoms, they found one of the russet-brown hills and sun-parched 
plains, with all the unmistakable conditions of the aridity of death. But on the other hand, 
they found a later autumn and a longer winter of verdure. Finally, the suggestion came that the 
old almanac was as inapplicable to the seasons of California as the old art of agriculture had 
proven. Instead of the winter of former experience, they found springtime to follow harvest, 
verdure to come with the rains of heaven, growth and vegetation belonging to the months 
relegated to the rigid bonds of winter in the homes they had left. Slowly the true meaning of 
the new environment began to be understood. The new art of agriculture followed the sugges- 
tion of new vicissitudes in nature, until to-day the art of horticulture and agriculture, as practiced 
in California, is not known elsewhere in the world, and it is to the material and moral results 
of this new adaptation of industry to a new environment that your attention is to be called. 
• The love of Californians for their State — which is proverbial — is not devoid of justification. 
What other country presents such inspiration of love and devotion? In what other country is 
there broader freedom of thought and action ? In what other country are the alluring prophecies 
which attend young life more certain of fulfillment ? In what other country do the higher 
blessings of peace and plenty minister to the comforts of age ? Are there other countries in 
which honest industry achieves higher respect, or in which labor earns a higher meed of profit 
and honor? 

Under our summer suns the fruits of the tropics ripen, unaccompanied by the discomforts of 
the torrid zone. Here the brown of our summer hills and the golden stubble of the after- 
harvest are the only winter we know. Here a spring-like verdure is the harbinger of the coming 
autumn, and the autumn is attended by no forewarning of the bleak rigors of winter. Here 
winter is the season when the warm, brown earth is turned by the plow for seed-time, and 
spring, with its flowers and ripening grain, is opulent with the prophecy of hopeful industry. 
Nor are these all the features which challenge our love of country. Here nature has wrought 
its best enchantments in the sublimity of mountain heights, the bold grandeur of cliffs, the pensive 
peacefulness of lovely valleys, and the expansive splendor of fertile plains. 

Looking backward we see a history founded in the romance of adventure. In the present 
we are laying the foundations of a noble commonwealth by the establishment of permanent 
industries. If, therefore, the manifestation of love for our State may sometimes appear boastful 
or provincial, let it find apology in the consideration that provincialism is an expression of local 
patriotism, and that with the people of California it is the inspiration of high endeavor, which, when 
duly chastened, will ripen for our beloved State its growing harvest of hope. 

WILLIAM H. MILLS, 
Chairman of Commiitee on Publication, 

California State Board of Trade. 

J- 

Know'st thou the land where the lemon trees bloom, 
Where the gold orange glows in the deep thicket's gloom, 
Where a wind ever soft from the blue heaven blows, 
And the groves are of laurel and myrtle and rose ? 



EARLY HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
Bv D. R. Sessions. 



ROMANCE IN THE NAME CALIFORNIA. 

VARIOUS speculations have been put forward as to the origin of the name of Cali- 
tornia. There is httle doubt, however, that it was derived from a Spanish romance 
entitled Sergas de Espladian, published as early as 1520, and brought to light 
again in 1862 through the researches of Edward Everett Hale. 

The California of that story was a fabulous island lying "on the right hand of the 
Indies, very near to the terrestrial paradise. It was peopled with black women, without 
any men among them, because they were accustomed to live after the fashion of the 
Amazons. Their arms were all of gold, and so were the caparisons of the wild beasts 
which they rode after they had tamed them; for in the island there was no other metal.'" 

The name was applied first to Lower California, Mexico, probably by Cortez, before 
any knowledge whatever had been obtained concerning the country which the world now 
knows almost exclusively as California. The romance that it embodies turns upon the 
Amazons of the pretty fiction; but as to the terrestrial paradise and the gold of the 
legend, it crystallizes a present material fact. 

Etymology suggests nothing descriptive of the country to which the name is applied. 
Caliente dLndfor7ie//a, the Spanish for hot and furnace, may be fairly blended grammatic- 
ally, and may aptly portray some burning island in the Indies, but not the real California, 
which is the real terrestrial paradise. 

FIRST MENTION BY ENGLISH WRITERS. 

It was not until 1579 that Sir Francis Drake paid his famous visit to California. 
"The World Encompassed" tells of much that he observed, and of some things that, 
]5erhaps, he imagined. Vancouver, who made his first voyage in 1792, was surprised that 
so small a force of soldiers could keep in awe so many thousands of natives! Cavendish 
appeared in these waters for the first time five years before Vancouver. In his report to 
the Lord Chamberlain he says: "I navigated along the coast of Chili and Peru and Nueva 
Espania (New Spain), where I made great spoils. I burned and sank nineteen sail of 
ships, small and great. All the villages I landed at I burned and spoiled." Woodes 
Rogers, the next English buccaneer in this order, was no less terrible than Drake and 
Cavendish. But he was either a poor observer or lacked the knack of telling. His 
voyage might have passed without record but for his rescue of Robinson Crusoe. 
Shelvocke followed Rogers, a few years later, into Porto Seguro by Cape Saint Lucas, 
where he gathered some glittering sand, being assured that it carried gold. Analysis 
revealed only the glitter. Rogers did make a discovery, however, which he chronicled as 
follows: "It is in a manner certain that the natives cannot be practiced in any sort of labor, 
except that of hunting and fishing." 

VISIT OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. 

Half of June and nearly all of July Sir Francis remained in a harbor not more ttian 
two miles north of the Golden Gate, that is, in about 38° 30', where he grounded his 
vessel for repairs. He took care to put up a stout fortification at once, to protect himself 
against the natives! He soon found out, however, how groundless were any fears of Cali- 
fornian savages. Simple creatures, they were friendliness and humility personified, in the 
presence of their wonderful visitors. The whole neighborhood, men, women, and children, 
flocked down to the shore to see them. The warriors, in token of instant submission, 
laid down their bows and arrows, while the women, to convey the same idea, shrieked 
piteously, tore their flesh, and cast themselves repeatedly and violently against the rocks 



8 CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 

and stones. The men advancing, placed a feather crown on Drake's head, threw wampum 
strings around his neck, and with song and dance hailed him as their hioh, chief. 

Whatever Sir Francis may have really thought these actions meant, he willingly 
accepted the proffered sceptre and sovereignty over a vast territory, and took formal 
possession on behalf of the queen. He made a short excursion into the country, and 
reported the green slopes covered with "big fat deer," and other game. It is not 
unlikely that the big fat deer referred to were elk, which at a later date, but still in the 
early history of California, were found in droves not very far from Drake's camp under 
Point Reyes. He recounts no adventure with bears, hence it may be inferred that he did 
not see a grizzly. 

OCCUPATION OF THE MISSION FATHERS. 

In 1769 four expeditions were dispatched from Mexico to San Diego Bay, two by 
land and two by sea. After a good deal of suffering and delay, all four of the parties 
arrived, and on July i6th the Mission of San Diego was founded, and the nucleus of the 
oldest city of California established. 

These expeditions were military and ecclesiastical combined. The head and soul of 
the ecclesiastics was the Franciscan priest, Junipero Serra, a priest of exalted character, 
whose enthusiasm fell but little short of inspiration. For, crippled and scarcely ever free 
from pain, he labored right on zealously up to his death, as though unconscious of the 
infirmities of his body. 

The plan of the Franciscans for converting the Indians included the building of 
churches, around which the fathers, padres, lived, instructing their pupils in faith, and 
requiring them to labor and live in the ways of civilization. 

By the end of 1700 there were eighteen missions with forty padres and a neophyte 
population of 13,500. Crops as high as 75,000 bushels were by this time produced, and 
there were 70,000 horses and cattle, while the mission property was valued at $r, 000, 000. 
When, in 1837, the secularization of the missions by the Republic of Mexico became 
complete, many of them began to fall into decay. The Indian converts, being thus 
released from the control of the fathers, relapsed into their former ways of living. One 
can only look back with respectful regret upon the labors of the zealous, if not always wise, 
Franciscan fathers. To California of the present day the missions are little more than a 
memory. Some pretty legends grew out of them, and they call up examples of exalted 
character and devotion. As a means of colonization, they were useful; but as a means of 
spiritual growth among the Indians, they are not a memorial of achievement. 

CHARACTER OF SPANISH OCCUPATION. 

The Spanish government extended its arm over the early missions, providing a 
presidio, or military station, near by each of them. The pueblos, which also were some- 
what of an accompaniment to the missions, were towns established to promote settlement 
of the country. They maintained local civil government, independent of church or mili- 
tary rule. The alcalde was their chief officer of justice; he with other, but subordinate, 
officers formed the ayimtamiento, or common council, of the larger towns. 

In 1822, when Mexico became a republic, a convention of Californian officers assem- 
bled at Monterey and gave assent to the new government. The first legislature under 
Mexican regime convened the next year. The Californians, however, did not feel depend- 
ent upon Mexico; a spirit of local independence developed rapidly among them during 
the decade preceding the conquest in 1846. This period was distinguished by jealousy 
of Mexican control and political feuds between rival factions around Monterey in the 
north and Los Angeles in the south. These feuds were never wanting in demonstration 
of valor, but always passed over without bloodshed. 

The white population of CaUfornia, in 1846, was about 1000, chiefly of Spanish 
lineage. Their principal occupation, hardly laborious enough to be termed an industry, 
was the raising of cattle for their hides and tallow, which they sold or bartered to Ameri- 
can coast traders for manufactured articles of the kind suited to their bucolic needs and 
peculiar fancies. Their Hfe was unprogressive, simple, and kindly, much given to hospi- 
tality, visitings, picturesque apparel, gay colors, and fiestas. Without exception, the Cali- 
fornians were skillful riders, natural musicians, and graceful dancers. Quick-witted, cheer- 



THE COMMERCIAL POSITION OF CALIFORNIA. g 

ful, and apt in conversation, their home life morally pure and wholesome, they were, in 
some respects an ideal people, lacking, however, in the character fibre to withstand the 
coarser influences of a commercial civilization. 

AMERICAN OCCUPATION. 

At the outbreak of the war with Mexico the United States was represented in California 
by a considerable number of prominent residents, by Fremont's party and, shortly after 
the declaration of warj'.by warships under the command of Commodore Sloat. There was 
no organization among them, nor does there seem to have been any plan by which they 
were directed from Washington. They all "appreciated the benefit to the United States 
of the acquisition of California, and were all animated by that idea, but each acted mostly 
on his own responsibility. A scramble resulted, terminating in conquest. 

The difficulty between Fremont and Governor Castro, which had starded the Cali- 
fornians and aroused them to resentment, was followed, June, 1846, by another act, for 
which there was no apparent purpose or excuse; a party of Americans seized a band of 
horses belonging to the Californian government and drove them to Fremont's camp. 
Another party of Americans, also without ostensible plan or reason, took possession of 
Sonoma, and having made prisoners of General Vallejo and three other gentlemen, sent 
them to Sutter's Fort. The main body remained in the helpless little town and enter- 
tained themselves with spread-eagle speeches and proclamations about " the new State," 
"another star in the constellation," etc. They also raised a flag made out of white 
cotton cloth, on which, with berry juice, was stained the figure of an animal purporting to 
be a bear. This was the famous " Bear Flag Revolution." 

On July 7th Commodore Sloat raised the stars and stripes at Monterey and took pos- 
session of that town. The same ceremony was performed on the same day by somebody 
else at Yerba Buena. 

Flushed with these victories, Commodore Stockton, to whom Sloat resigned his 
command, and Fremont began operations, with Los Angeles as military headquarters. 
Except for the battle of San Pascual, in which Kearney, with his half-famished battalion, 
was not able to dislodge the Californians, there was no war. 





THE COMMERCIAL POSITION OF CALIFORNIA. 
By William L. Merry. 



IN the consideration of California's commercial status, the future must be considered 
even more than the present conditions. California occupies a remarkable com- 
mercial position, considered in any sense. With her northern limit in 42° north 
latitude and her southern extreme at 32° 32' north, this great State spans nearly ten 
degrees of latitude. The seacoast of California equals half the coast of Massachusetts, 
Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, 
Virginia, North Carolina, and to a point twenty miles south of Charleston on the coast 
of South Carohna — ten Atlantic seacoast States ! Her area of 188,961 square miles equals 
that of all the New England States, New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, combined. In 
this immense area we now have about one and a quarter million inhabitants, while France, 
with 202,579 square miles area, has thirty-six and a half millions, approximately. Cali- 
fornia can inaintain in comfort a population of thirty-five millions. It has at this time 
hardly emerged from the pioneer condition as regards population, while her position in 
respect to a high civilization equals that of any State in the Union. Who shall precisely 
forecast the commercial future of this imperial commonwealth ? 

Commercial conditions are always largely controlled by climate, and in this California 



lo CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 

is unique. Every known climate may be found within her borders, except the strictly 
arctic and the subtropical. On her great seacoast almost perennial polar winds are 
blowing, creating a distinctly different climate from the interior. San Francisco is 
situated'in this marine climate. Visitors may note ladies in our streets wearing Arctic 
furs in January and in July, without necessity, save as a mandate of fashion, in either case. 
But leave the coast for the interior, east of the mountains nearest the Pacific, and another 
distinct climate is encountered, with a high, dry temperature in the daytime during 
summer, and cool, but not cold, winters. Again, ascend the Sierra Nevada at its eastern 
borders and find a mountain climate, cool in summer and freezing in winter. At its 
northern extreme the seasons somewhat resemble our Eastern climatic divisions, while 
south of Sacramento we have no longer winter, but a dry and rainy season, with hardly 
distinguishable spring or autumn. 

These striking differences in climate create the possibility of a diversified production, 
unequaled by any State in the Union. Anything that the world produces can be grown in 
Cahfornia, except subtropical products. This pregnant fact is the gauge of her commer- 
cial possibilities, Hmited only by her accessible markets. 

Cheap transportation for her products to the markets of the world — that is the main 
question which controls her future commercial possibihties. The brilliant intellect of that 
great statesman, William H. Seward, when he purchased Alaska, looking into the future 
with prophetic forecast, declared that " tlie Pacific Ocean would become the scene of man' s 
greatest achievements. '' In this great history California will make her mark. Facing the 
Orient, Oceanica, and Australia, who shall limit her ocean commerce westward ? Her 
ships cross the meridian westward to reach the so-called ''Far East." From the dream of 
centuries, Japan is already awake, and China at last shows the effect of increased contact 
with modern civilization. Australasia, peopled with our own race, already invites our 
commerce, and Asiatic Russia reaches for Pacific waters with the longest railroad in the 
world. The ocean steamship on the surface, and the electric cable on the bottom of the 
great Pacific, are to become the prime agents in this great commercial development, which 
will unite California and her sister States on the Pacific to the " Far East." Commerce, 
recognizing no creed or nationality, aided by steam and electricity, will solve the problem 
of her commercial future ! 

Let us now look eastward, toward the Atlantic Ocean. How strikingly different are 
the conditions ! A continent 3200 miles from ocean to ocean, with California on its 
western limit, and two great mountain chains to be surmounted — an immense empire 
between the oceans, already the seat of unequaled commercial, manufacturing, and pro- 
ductive activity; beyond that another great ocean, but only about half the width of the 
Pacific, and then Etirope, peopled by our own race — the seat of modern finance, science, 
civilization, and learning; her lands crowded with a population demanding our products, 
and ready to aid in the development of our Pacific Coast when it can be reached with 
economy in time, distance, and cost. 

Our country spans the co7itinent — truly a goodly heritage for a great people — a land 
wherein are being solved the great questions of modern civilization, with a commerce 
urgently demanding room for expansion. Across this great continent, as upon the ocean, 
steam and electricity are the great factors eliminating distance. A magnificent railway 
system supplies the demand of our people for rapid transit, while electric wires furnish 
us with the news of the world hourly. The communications so liberally provided in rail- 
roads by the energy and power of capital are worthy of all praise and admiration, but 
they have only supplemented what has been provided by nature. Water tra7isportatioyi is 
also necessary to give due effect to the industry of our people. Railroads must necessarily 
absorb an undue share of the earnings of production in order to assure profits to the 
great capital employed in their construction; but they also confer untold benefits, supply- 
ing the transportation for perishable and valuable property, securing rapid movement of 
mails and cheap carriage for our people. The development of our great interior would 
have been impossible without them, and cheap water transportation, comparing in cost at 
the ratio of one to ten, to one to twenty, will supplement their usefulness without decreas- 
ing their earnings. 

From the great markets of our Atlantic seaboard and Europe, California is separated 
by the extension of the Western Continent far into the Southern Ocean. The Cape Horn 
passage is behind the demands of our age, and commerce, with increasing anxiety, awaits 



THE COMMERCIAL POSITION OE CALIEORNIA. ii 

the opening of a short water route, by which our increasing products can cheaply and 
promptly reach Atlantic markets. What the railways cannot profitably carry to the 
Atlantic Coast of our country, and what the great centers of population in Europe need 
of our products, seek this great interoceanic highway, thus far in vain; but the day is 
not far distant, when through the inland sea of Nicaragua will pass a stately procession of 
ocean carriers, laden both ways — with the products of our soil eastward, and with the 
manufactured products and immigration of our eastern seaboard and of Europe, west- 
ward. 

Then will have arrived the time when it can no longer be asserted that " the Great 
West has everything to ofifer the immigrant save cheap transportation." No matter how 
cheap by rail, it cannot be made cheap enough to pay the cost of production as regards the 
bulky products of our soil and industry, and leave the railroad the cost of carriage. Then 
the immigrant may grow all the products he desires; the mills may cut all the lumber they 
can handle; the miner produce all the ore that has value — all will have a market open to 
them at prices which will encourage the producer, the mechanic, and the miner. Our 
lands will become populated, our cities prosperous, and our people contented in the steady 
development of our State. How illogical the idea that land transportation will not share 
in the benefits of this great development. How can land carriers suffer when at first 
hundreds of thousands, and later millions, are added to the population of California? 
Then will California, facing the " Far East" westward, and Western Europe, as well as 
our Atlantic coast, eastward, fulfill her commercial destiny. With an ocean highway 
eastward and westward, supplementing the magnificent railway systems already at her 
command, she can bid a friendly commercial defiance to the world, and still say to our 
countrymen who crowd eastern centers of population: "Come westward and help us; we 
have here a glorious heritage — room for all who will work, and a market open to them for 
all they can produce !" 

As " eternal vigilance is the price of liberty'' so, under our form of government 
especially, '■' eternal persistency is the price of success.'' It accomplished the boon of rapid 
land transportation, without which our State would have remained a provincial community, 
and it will accomplish the great interoceanic waterway for which we have so long waited. 
Then both eastward and westward vve shall face the commercial world on even terms for the 
first time. The pioneer conditions of the past and the comparative commercial isolation of 
the present will have become ancient history, and California will meet the commercial 
world, asking only a fair field and no favor. Equidistant between the Orient and Europe, 
with her seaports on the line of navigation between them, she will forever remain in close 
touch with the commerce of both. Her commercial position will have been so radically 
improved by the elimination of ten thousand miles sea carriage that her land transport 
system will be as greatly benefited as her people, and we shall wonder at history repeating 
itself, in the fallacy of human judgment that feared the result of increased facilities for 
cheap transportation as a danger to vested interests already secure in the patronage of an 
empire which cannot possibly live on the basis of modern commerce and civilization 
without them. 







^^ 




THE BIRTH OF A FLOWER. 

When Israel's Captain bade the sun stand still, 
Loosed from the orb, a million flakes of flame 

Were wafted down on meadow, vale, and hill. 
And so to earth the golden poppy came. 

— Philip Morse. 




ROSE-COVERED COTTAGE IN CALIFORNIA - CHRISTMAS. 



CLIMATE OF CALIFORNIA. 

By Prof. E. W. Hilgard. 



CALIFORNIA extends through nine and a half degrees of latitude. If it were placed 
on the Atlantic coast, it would reach from Savannah, Ga., to Boston. The length 
of the State is about 750 miles, its average width about 200 miles. With such 
dimensions "California climate" is, naturally, not a very definite quantity. California is 
a land of many climates — from the hottest subtropical to the cold temperate, and from 
the driest desert to the most humid regime of the higher mountains and northern coast. 

Along the coast, owing to the tempering influence of the sea and the trade winds 
which usually blow landwards across the cold Alaskan current (see map), the climatic con- 
ditions from north to south are much more equable than on the Atlantic coast. The most 
rapid changes occur from the coast eastward, across the State. Thus one can start on a 
cool, spring-like morning from San Francisco, by noon endure summer heat in the Sacra- 
mento Valley, and before night be amid the snows of the Sierra. 

On the east the Sierra Nevada forms a natural boundary line; the mountains rise 
very gradually from the west, to a height of from 8500 to 14,000 feet — considerably 
above the snow line, so that some small glaciers still exist. On the eastern side the Sierra 
falls off abruptly to the Nevada Plateau, itself some 4000 feet above sea level. 

The Coast Range Mountains form a broad belt, running along the entire length of the 
coast. They usually consist of two or three parallel ranges, seldom over 3200 feet high. 
Between these ranges lie numerous fertile valleys, sometimes of considerable extent. 
These valleys nearly all trend toward the northwest— an important factor in their climatic 

<;onditions. , w ,, r 

Between the Sierra Nevada and the Coast Range belt lies the Great Central Valley ot 
California, approximately outlined on the map as a region of low rainfall. It is about 400 
miles long and fifty to sixty miles wide. This is a fruitful agricultural district, with 
very little waste land, and covers fully one ninth of the State; when watered it is of great 
productiveness almost everywhere. Through the northern portion ("Sacramento Val- 
ley") runs the Sacramento River; through the southern (" San Joaquin Valley "), the 
San Joaquin River. These rivers unite about the middle of the Great Valley, and flowing 
westward empty into Suisun, San Pablo and San Francisco Bays, and through these, by way 
of the " Golden Gate," into the Pacific Ocean. The latter forms a " break" in the Coast 
Range, which is an important factor in the climatic conditions of the Great Valley, in that 
it allows the influence of the sea winds to gain access to the interior. Thus every afternoon 
in summer the heat of the Great Valley (as well as that of the coast valleys), is tempered 
by the sea breeze, which blows up-stream (and therefore in opposite directions) in the 
Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys, respectively. This, together with the dryness of 
the atmosphere, renders easily endurable temperatures much higher than could be safely 
faced in the East without imminent danger of sunstroke, which in California is as rare as 
are thunderstorms. . 

The Great Valley is terminated at the south by the Tehachapi Mountains, which unite 
the Sierra Nevada and the Coast Range. The Tehachapi Mountains form the boundary 
between "Northern" and "Southern" Cahfornia. 

In this section is the so-called Mojave Desert, a wide stretch of largely cultivatable and 
fertile plateau, which needs only water to transform it into a garden producing almost all 
products of the temperate zone. In its level portion the natural rainfall is only from four 
to six inches (in some years it is practically nothing), so it can hardly be taken into con- 
sideration in cultural practice. The main source of water supply for irrigation is from 
artesian wells. A large portion of the Colorado Desert is also cultivatable, needing only 
water to make it productive. 

li/inds. — As already indicated, the winds in California are on the whole very regular, 
being governed chiefly by the southwest trade winds blowing from the Pacific landward. 



14 CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 

The moisture they bring is to a large extent condensed into fog by the cool waters of the 
Alaska current, and these fogs produce a very cool summer cUmate along the immediate- 
coast. This is exemplified at San Francisco and on the adjacent bay coast generally, 
where the average temperature of winter and summer differ only about four degrees F. ; 
so that in midsummer (July and August) overcoats and occasional fires are in request. In 
summer, as the hot air in the Great Valley rises, the cool air from the sea rushes in; but 
the fog cannot pass the crests of the coast ranges, and dissolves before the hot, dry air of 
the interior. During the winter the fog not infrequently covers the Great Valley for weeks 
at a time. 

In winter the winds are more variable; the rain storms are ushered in and accompa- 
nied by south winds, which are commonly first observed on Puget Sound, and thence work- 
southwards. They usually last about three days. East winds are rare, but sometimes 
occur in winter, and blowing as they do then from the snowy Sierra, are very chilly. North 
winds are always dry, and in summer resemble the sirocco of the Mediterranean region ;^ 
on the coast they usually last from one to three days only, occurring chiefly in June and 
September, but are almost entirely absent in some years. At times they injure the crops 
seriously in the interior of the State, by drying 'out the land; on the natural pastures they 
dry out the grasses into standing hay, which serves for dry pasture throughout the 
summer. 

The Rainfall. — In California, south of Cape Mendocino and north of the Tehachapr 
Mountains, practically all the rain falls during the seven months between November and 
May ("Franciscan climate"); the whole system of agriculture is so adapted to this regime 
that any deviation is unacceptable. A five-months' drought is therefore nothing extraor- 
dinary in California. "A green winter and a brown summer" is the normal condition 
here. It is evident that if the rainfall of twenty inches were distributed throughout the 
year (as is actually the case in middle Montana), it would be insufficient for the growth of 
ordinary field crops. But being concentrated within seven months (the "growing season"), 
with a very mild winter, cereals may be sown from November until March, and may be 
cut for hay or grain, as the season may render expedient. For it will readily be seen that 
meadows cannot be maintained in such a climate without constant irrigation; hence hay is 
made from cereals (wheat and barley), as well as from alfalfa, the latter serving also for 
pasturage in place of red clover. 

A glance at the accompanying map shows wide variations of rainfall within the State, 
and even within the Great Valley. The table below shows, in an interesting manner, the 
variation on the east side of the valley from north to south. 

TABLE OF RAINFALL ON THE EAST SIDE OF THE GREAT VALLEY OF CALIFORNIA. 

Station. Inches. Station. Inches. 

Redding 34.6 Lathrop 11.9 

Red Bluff. 23.S Modesto 9.6 

Chico . 20.9 Merced 10.3 

Nicolaus 18 6 Fresno 9.0 

Sacramento 19.8 Tulare 7.0 

Gait 16.7 Bakersfield 6.1 

Stockton 13.2 

A similar, but less striking, decrease of rainfall (about four inches) is observed in an 
easterly and westerly direction, from the foot of the Sierra toward the Coast Rano-e. 

Twenty inches of rainfall is usually considered the limit below which the culture of 
field crops without irrigation becomes precarious. This is true where that rainfall is dis- 
tributed all over the year; but in the "Franciscan climate," where it is concentrated 
upon six or seven months, during which plant growth is allowed bv the temperature, 
much smaller rainfalls will suffice. It will be seen from the above tabfe that the precipita- 
tion in the Sacramento Valley lies mostly above the twenty-inch limit; but as we proceed 
southward in the San Joaquin Valley, irrigation becomes more and more important, the 
water required being brought in from the streams descending from the Sierra. Yet the 
great depth of the soils and natural moisture rising from below, permits of successful grain 
culture far to the south of the twenty-inch limit. 

A similar, but less rapid decrease, of rainfall is observed along the seacoast. Cape 
Mendocino is a kind of weather divide, north of which the rainfall and the summer climate 



34 



SCALE O 



lu.. 














W^gjnia^ify r\Carson. 



Rainfall Map 

OP 

CALIFORNIA 

COMPILED BY 

E. W. HILGAUD 

FOR THE 

Berlin Geogkaphical Society 

CALIFORlSriA 

Area of tbe state in square miles 157000 

' i'l acra 100,000,000 

Arable area in acres 35,000,000 

Population 1,600,000 




CLIMATE OB CALIFORNIA. 



15 



<:hanges, Northwestern California having a climate with summer rains, much like that of 
Oregon. Owing to this fact and, farther south, to the prevalence of coolness and summer 
fogs, which contribute materially to the maintenance of summer vegetation, the coast 
region is eminently adapted to dairying, and especially southward of Santa Barbara, pro- 
duces abundantly the staple crops of the northern States — together with beans, corn, and 
Jiogs. On this southern coast belt the rainfall ranges from about sixteen inches at Santa 
Barbara to eleven at San Diego; at San Francisco it is from twenty-three to twenty-four 
inches, then to northward rises rapidly to over forty inches, with occasional local varia- 
tions down to thirty; but still, within the State, it rises at some points to as much as eighty 
inches, under the influence of the mountains. 

The shape and direction of the coast valleys also exert a material mfluence upon both 
rainfall and temperature, according to the greater or less ease with which the trade winds 
can penetrate. Thus there are brought about numerous "local climates " and "thermal 
belts," favoring certain cultures more than others. Hence the selection of location and 
exposures is of exceptional importance in this State. 

In the Sierra the rainfall increases about one inch for every 100 feet of elevation; aside 
from this the climatic and agricultural character of the foothills up to 2000-2500 feet is 
about the same as in the Great Valley. Farther up, to about 3500-4000 feet (according 
to latitude), fine deciduous fruit is grown, especially wine-grapes, peaches, pears, and 
apples, of excellent quality. Higher up, lumbering, mining, and sheep herding pre- 
dominate. 

Temperature. — The subjoined table is of interest in showing strikingly the differences 
already referred to, between the climates of the coast of California and of the corresponding 
latitudes on the Atlantic coast: — 



CALIFORNIA COAST. 




ATLANTIC COAST 






STATIONS. 


SUMMER. 


WINTER. 


YEAR. 


STATIONS. 


SUMMER. 


WINTER. 


YEAR. 


Camp Lincoln .... 
San Francisco .... 
San Diego 


59-5 
58.0 
69.7 


47.2 
50.1 
54- I 


53-9 
55-2 
62.1 


Boston, Mass 

Cape Charles, Va . . 
Edisto, S. Carolina . . 


68.7 

74-3 
81.0 


28.1 

35-8 
46.6 


48.4 
56.0 
64-3 



It will be noted, that while the animal averages of corresponding points on the two 
coasts are not very widely different, the temperatures of summer and winter are very much 
farther apart on the eastern coast than on the western, and quite as strikingly so in the 
northern as in the southern portions of the respective regions. This exemption from 
extremes of temperature constitutes one of the great attractions of the Pacific Coast. 

In the interior, notably in the Great Valley, the seasons show somewhat greater 
extremes of temperature; but the greater seasonal range of the thermometer is largely 
offset by the fact that the dryness of the air renders the changes much less sensible than is 
the case in the moister air of the coast. Thus at San Francisco, which presents the 
extreme of the coast climate on account of its peninsular position, those familiar with the 
climate make a careful distinction between the sunny and shady sides of the streets in 
walking; bay-windows, of necessity, take the place of porticos or porches, which would 
rarely be available; while in the interior, porticos are universal, and camping out under a 
tree all night may be indulged in with impunity by anyone during the dry season. 

In the Great Valley the summer temperature reaches daily from eighty to 
ninety-five degrees, and annually ranges above one hundred degrees from time to time. 
But here also, on account of the great dryness of the atmosphere, these temperatures are 
not at all oppressive, and as already stated, sunstroke is almost unknown. Naturally, out 
of reach of the sea influence, the difference between the summer average and winter 
average is much greater than on the coast, so that the temperature sometimes falls below 
the freezing point every night for several weeks; and it is remarkable (undoubtedly owing 
to the high mountains in the southern portion) that the minimum temperatures of the 
northern and southern ends of the valley are about the same. Sometimes snow falls for a 
short time, but it is soon melted, and a light crust of frozen ground is never exceeded. 
As the extreme limit of winter cold determines the agricultural possibilities of a region 



i6 CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 

much more than the average temperature does, the culture of the citrus fruits thus extends 
nearly to the northern end of the Sacramento Valley, as well as up into the foothills 
of the Sierra. Southward, in the San Joaquin Valley, one of the most promising orange- 
growing regions is located on the eastern edge of the valley, while farther south, in the 
Kern River Valley, the deciduous fruits gain preference. 

In Southern California the heat, as well as the cold, is comparatively milder; on the 
coast the fogs are not so frequent or so heavy, as the Alaska Current turns away from the 
land at Point Conception, near Santa Barbara. On account of this equableness of the 
temperature, a variety of semitropic fruits is grown most safely in this part of the State. 
They include in favorable locations, besides the orange and lemon, the banana, pineapple, 
custard apple (Cherimoya), guava, papaya, and others. The irrigation water required 
almost throughout this region is supplied by the snows on the high crests of the Sierra 
Madre, which at numerous points is also gathered into reservoirs counting among the 
largest in the United States. 

Taken as a whole, California corresponds in its climatic features and adaptation to the 
Mediterranean region of Europe and Africa — a grand Riviera, with a partial background of 
the desert as well, where the date palm and the ostrich find a congenial home, and alluvial 
plains equaling in richness the famed delta of the Nile. 



^ ^^. ^^^^ 



THE SCENERY OF CALIFORNIA. 
By John Muir. 



AT first sight of the fashionable scenery habit, it would seem that the people of the 
East need not come West seeking fine scenery, for they have plenty of it at home. 
God never made an ugly landscape. All that the sun shines on is beautiful, as 
long as it is wild; and much in every landscape is unchangeably wild, especially light, 
which falls everywhere. In no place on all this continent, from Florida to the Arctic 
Ocean, have I seen finer, diviner, more enchanting landscapes than in the Great American 
Desert, with its broad, hot, alkaline levels, and mountains and hills rising farther and 
farther beyond each other in smooth, billowy ranges, robed in light as a garment. And 
so the lover of nature, wandering at will or remaining steadfast like a rock, is always 
content with the fullness of beauty about him in any wild place, wherever he may chance 
to be. Every heaven-born want of scenery is satisfied, and there is no aching void to 
excite longing or curiosity concerning any other country or star. 

To the sane and healthy, therefore, it seems hardly worth while to compare the 
scenery of the two sides of our continent. Each has its own beauty, like the two sides of 
a rainbow; but to defrauded toilers, grown dull and blind in duty and business, the need 
is different. Like sick children who can no longer eat bread or recognize their own 
mothers, the wearied workers of civilization, weak and giddy in the whirl of cities, stupe- 
fied by doing good and making money, recreation for body and soul is found only in what 
is novel. Their own beautiful and enchanting scenery no longer nourishes them. Their 
thousand miles of coast, with marvelous wealth of picturesque bays and headlands, kept in 
perpetual song and bloom of foam and spray by the waves of the blue Atlantic; the 
charming round-headed trees — oaks and elms, hickory and ilex, tulip and magnolia, 
fringed with rhododendron and sassafras, stretching in lovely forests along the flowing 
folds of the Alleghanies; the spiry spruce and pine woods of New England, with count- 
less lakes and streams shining like silvery embroidery; the woods of the Middle West, the 
richest in species in the world, and the grassy plains and prairies, and chain of great lakes 
— all these, good enough for gods or men, at length become of noneffect. Seen so often 
through clouds of care and the stupor of business, they at length are not seen at all, and 



i8 CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 

something tremendously striking is required to shake and frighten them out of apathy to 

life. 

Of such awakening scenery there is abundance in the West— the wild dance of waters 
on the top of the Rocky Mountains in the Yellowstone Park; inverted waterfalls rushing 
up into the sky instead of falling out of it; the Yosemite streams descending from the sky 
with beauty and song fit to awaken the dead; lofty mountains, pure as heaven, preaching 
forever; the plunge of icebergs from the great glaciers of Alaska, and majestic sequoias 
that have looked down through all the centuries since Christ walked the earth. Forests, 
mountains, and plains, wild gardens fair as Eden, and crystal caves, our Golden State has 
in endless variety and abundance, to heal and cheer and revive the sick and weary of 
every land. 

The immediate coast of California, though by no means lacking in interest, is much 
less broken and picturesque than that of the Atlantic. Excepting the unrivaled bay and 
harbor of San Francisco and the Bay of San Pedro, there are few marked openings. The 
shore bluffs rise abruptly from the waves, forming a wall apparendy unbroken, gray along 
the front, green and yellow on the top. Going ashore we find few smooth reaches where 
one may saunter, or meadows, save the brown and purple meadows of the sea, full of 
slippery kelp and dulse, where seals and fishes feed, swashed and swirled in the restless 
breakers. The abruptness of the shore allows the massive waves that have come from 
afar over the broad Pacific to get close to the bluffs before they break, and the thundering 
shocks shake them to their foundations. No calm comes to these shores. Even in the 
calmest weather, when the sails of the ships hang loose against the masts, there is always 
a wreath of foam at the feet of the cliffs. The waves are ever in bloom, and crystal brine 
is ever in the air. 

The scenery of California is composed on a much grander scale than that of the East. 
Go where you may, mountains are ever in sight, making every landscape striking and 
bold. Yet so simple and massive is the topography in general views, the main central 
portion of the State displays only one valley and two chains of mountains, which seem 
perfectly regular in trend; the Coast Range on the west, the Sierra Nevada on the east. 
These two ranges come together in wide curves, and thus inclose a magnificent basin, with 
a level floor more than 400 miles long and from thirty-five to sixty miles wide. This is 
the Grand Central Valley of California, the waters of which have only one outlet to the 
sea — by the famous Golden Gate. 

But with this general simplicity of features, there is great variety and complexity of 
detail. The Coast Range, rising as a green barrier against the ocean, is composed of 
innumerable forest-crowned spurs and ridges and roUing hills, which inclose small valleys, 
some looking out through long leafy vistas to the sea, others with scant foliage to the 
central valley, while a thousand others, still smaller, lie embosomed and concealed amid 
smooth, round-browed hills, dotted with wide-spreading oaks. But the crowning glory of 
the Coast Range is the redwood forest which extends along the western slope in a nearly 
continuous belt, from the Oregon boundary to Santa Cruz; and in sustained grandeur and 
closeness of growth surpasses all other forests in the world. Trees from ten to twenty feet 
in diameter and 300 feet high are not uncommon, and a few attain a height of 350 feet, and 
even 400, while the ground beneath these giants is a garden of ferns, rhododendrons and 
lilies. Only by its companion species, Seqiioia gigantea of the Sierra Nevada, is this 
superb tree (Sequoia sempervirens ) surpassed in size, if indeed it is surpassed. The 
sempervire?is is certainly the taller of the two, the gigantea attains a greater girth and is 
more beautiful and noble in port. The redwood is restricted to the coast, the "Big Tree" 
to the Sierra, and both to California, excepting a few groves of redwood that extend 
beyond the boundary into Oregon. 

Making your way eastward through the leafy mazes of the Coast Range forests to the 
summit of any of the inner peaks or passes opposite San Francisco, in the clear springtime 
of the year, you will find the grandest and most telling of all California landscapes out- 
spread before you. At your feet lies the Great Central Valley, extending north and south 
farther than the eye can reach, one smooth, flowery, lake-like bed of fertile soil. Along 
its eastern margin rises the mighty Sierra Nevada, miles in height, and so gloriously 
colored and so luminous, it seems to be not clothed with light, but wholly composed of it 
like the wall of some celestial city. Along the top, and extending halfway down or more, 
you see a pale pearl-gray belt of snow, and below this a belt of dark purple and blue, 



THE SCENERY OF CALIFORNIA. 19 

marking the extension of the main forests, and along the base of the range a broad belt of 
rose- purple and yellow, where lie the miners' gold and the foothill ranches and gardens. 
The Sierra is about 500 miles long, seventy miles wide, and from 7000 to nearly 14,70a 
feet high. In general views like this one no mark of man is as yet visible, nor anything 
to suggest the richness of the life it cherishes, or the grandeur of its sculpture. None of 
its magnificent forested ridges seems to rise much above the general level. No great 
valley or lake or river is seen, or group of well-marked features of any kind as distinct 
pictures. Even the summit peaks clearly defined on the sky seem comparatively featureless. 
Nevertheless, glaciers are still at work on the snowy peaks, and thousands of lakes and 
meadows shine and bloom beneath them, and the whole majestic range is furrowed with, 
canons to a depth of from 2000 to 5000 feet, in which once flowed magnificent glaciers, 
and in which now flow and sing a band of beautiful rivers. 

Though cut in granite and of such stupendous depth, these caiions are not raw, 
gloomy, jagged- walled gorges, savage and inaccessible. On the contrary, with rough 
passages here and there, they make delightful pathways for every walkable traveler, con- 
ducting from the fertile lowlands to the highest icy fountains. They are mountain streets, 
full of life and light, graded and sculptured by the ancient glaciers, and present throughout 
all their courses a rich variety of beautiful and attractive scenery, the most attractive ever 
yet discovered in the mountain ranges of the globe. In many places, especially in the- 
middle region of the western flank, the main canons widen into spacious valleys or parks, 
like artificial landscape gardens. The largest of these are called Yosemite valleys, only- 
one of which is far-famed as yet. Beautiful groves and meadows and thickets of blooming 
bushes diversify their level floors, while their lofty, retiring walls, infinitely varied in form 
and sculpture, and springing abruptly into the sky, are fringed with ferns, delicate flowers of 
many species, and hardy oaks and evergreens, while rejoicing streams come down over 
their sunny brows in glorious array to join the tranquil river that flows through the middle 
of every Yosemite park; They are like immense halls or temples, lighted from above. 
Every rock seems to glow with life. Some lean back in sublime repose; others, absolutely 
vertical, or nearly so, for thousands of feet, advance their brows in thoughtful attitudes, 
giving welcome to storms and calms alike — types of permanence, yet ever associated with: 
beauty of the frailest and most fleeting forms, as if into these sublime mountain mansions 
Nature had taken pains to gather her choicest treasures to draw her lovers into close, con- 
fiding communion with her. 

Here, too, in the middle region of the range where the cafions are deepest are the 
grandest trees — the Sequoia gigantea, king of conifers, the noblest of a noble race; the 
majestic sugar and yellow pines, Douglas spruce, libocedrus, and silver firs, each a giant of 
its kind, assembled together in one and the same forest, surpassing all other coniierous- 
forests in the world, both in number of species and in the beauty and size of its trees. 
The winds flow in melody through their colossal spires, and they are everywhere made yet 
more charmingly vocal with the songs of birds and falling water. Fragrant ceanothus and 
manzanita bushes of many species bloom beneath them, and lily gardens and meadows 
and damp ferny glens, compeUing the admiration of every observer. Sweeping on over 
ridge and valley in glorious exuberance, these noble trees extend, a continuous belt, from 
end to end of the range, interrupted only by the sheer- walled canons at intervals of about 
fifteen and twenty miles. Here the great, burly, brown and grizzly bears delight to roam, 
harmonizing with the brown-barked trees beneath which they feed. Deer also dwell here, 
and find food and shelter in the ceanothus tangles with a multitude of smaller people. 
Above this region of forest giants the trees grow smaller, until the utmost limit of the- 
timber line is reached at a height of from 10,000 to 12,000 feet above the sea, where the 
dwarf pine is so lowly and hard pressed by wind and snow that you may easily walk over 
the top of its heath-like tangles, as if walking over a brushy meadow. Below the main 
forest belt the trees likewise diminish in size, frost and burning drought repressing and 
blasting alike. 

The rose-purple zone along the base of the range comprehends nearly all the famous 
gold fields. Here it was that miners from nearly every country under the sun came in wild 
excitement to seek their fortunes. On the banks of every river, gulch, and ravine they 
have left their marks. Every gravel and bowlder bed has been desperately riddled and 
sifted over and over again. Since civilization began, no more violent storm of human 
energy ever fell on mountains. With stout faith they drew rivers out of their channels. 



I 



20 CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 

onto the tops of the ridges or along their sides, and made them work in the mines like 
slaves; and thus they removed hills about as big as mountains and cast them into the sea. 
But the pick and shovel, once wielded with savage enthusiasm, have been mostly laid 
aside, and only quartz mining is now being carried on to any considerable extent. 

The gold zone is a region of tawny foothills, roughened here and there with hardy 
bushes and oaks and outcropping masses of lichen-colored slates. In early spring, from 
February to April, it is a paradise of bees and blossoms. Refreshing rains then fall freely, 
the birds are busy about their nests, and the sunshine is balmy and delightful; but before 
the end of May all the landscape seems as if it had been baked in an oven, most of the 
herbaceous vegetation crumbles to dust beneath the foot, and the small stream channels are 
dry; the ground is covered with a network of cracks, while the snowy summits looming 
along the eastern horizon look hazy and tremulous through the burning glare. 

Every winter the high Sierra and the middle forest region get snow in abundance, and 
even the foothills and the central valley are at times whitened. Then the range looks 
like a vast beveled wall of purest marble, clean as the skies; and though silent in its flight 
from the clouds, and when it is taking its place on rock and tree and grassy meadow, how 
soon the gentle snow finds a voice! Slipping from the heights, gathering in avalanches, 
it booms and roars like thunder, and makes a glorious show, arrayed in long, silken 
streamers, and wreathing, swirling films of crystal dust. 

The north half of the Sierra is mosdy covered with floods of lava, and dotted with 
volcanoes in various stages of decay. The south half is composed of granite nearly from 
base to summit, while a considerable number of peaks in the middle of the range are capped 
with metamorphic slates. Mt. Whitney, the culminating point of the range, lifts its helmet- 
shaped crest to a height of nearly 14,600 feet, near the southern extremity. Mt. Shasta, 
a colossal volcanic cone, rises near the northern extremity of the range to a height of 
14,440 feet, and forms a noble landmark for the surrounding country within a radius of a 
hundred miles. Residual masses of volcanic rocks occur throughout most of the granitic 
southern portion, and there are a considerable number of old volcanoes on the east flank, 
near Mono Lake and southward. Here, also, there are numerous hot springs and mud 
volcanoes; but it is only to the northward that the entire range is mantled with lava. 
From the summit of Mt. Whitney only granite is seen. Many nameless peaks and spires, 
but little lower than its own storm-beaten crags, rise in groups hke forest trees, segregated 
by chasms and canons of tremendous depth and ruggedness; but on Shasta nearly every 
feature in the view speaks of the old volcanic fires. Craters and cones of every size are 
seen, the highest being Lassen Butte, rising to a height of about 11,000 feet above the 
sea. The Cinder Cone near Lassen Butte marks the most recent volcanic eruption in the 
Sierra. It is a symmetrical truncated cone, about 700 feet high above its base, covered 
with gray cinders and ashes, and has a regular crater in its summit, in which a few small 
pines are growing. These trees show that the age of the cone is not less than a hundred 
years, though it looks fresh and unwasted. It stands between two lakes, which before the 
eruption were one. Before the cone was built a stream of rough vesicular lava was 
poured into the lake, cutting it in two, and then advancing into the adjacent forest, over- 
whelmed the trees in its path, the charred ends of some of which being still visible, pro- 
jecting from beneath the snout of the lava stream where it came to rest. Later there was 
an eruption of ashes and loose obsidian cinders, probably from the same vent, which, 
besides building the Cinder Cone, covered the ground in the surrounding woods for miles 
to a depth of from six inches to several feet. The history of this last volcanic eruption is 
also preserved in the traditions of the Pitt River Indians. They tell of a time of dark- 
ness, when the sky was black with ashes and smoke that came out of the ground and 
threatened every living thing with death, and that when at length the sun again appeared 
it was red like blood. Less recent craters in great numbers roughen the adjacent region, 
some of them with lakes in their throats, others with trees and flowers. Nature in these 
old hearths and firesides having literally given beauty for ashes. 

Along the base of the range a telling series of sedimentary rocks are now being 
studied, which contain much of its early history; but leaving for the present these first 
chapters, we see that only a very short geological time ago a vast deluge of molten rocks 
poured from many a crater and chasm on the flanks and along the summit of the range, 
filling river channels and lake basins, and obliterating nearly every existing feature on the 
northern portion. At length, when these broad lava floods ceased to flow, but while the 



CALIFORNIAN FORESTS. 21 

great volcanic cones built up along the axis still burned and smoked, the whole Sierra 
passed under the domain of snow and ice. Then over the bald, featureless, fire-blackened 
mountains, glaciers began to crawl, covering them from the summits to the sea with a 
mantle of ice, and then, with infinite deliberation, the work went on of sculpturing the 
range over again and making new scenery. These mighty agents of erosion crushed and 
ground the flinty lavas and granites beneath their crystal folds, working on through un- 
numbered centuries, until in the fullness of time the mighty Sierra was born again, 
brought to light nearly as we behold it to-day, with its glaciers and snow-crushed pines at 
the top of the range, wheat fields and orange groves at the foot of it. This change from 
icy darkness and death to life and beauty was slow as we count time, and is still going 
on over all the world wherever glaciers exist; but in no country, as far as I know, may 
these majestic changes be studied to better advantage than in this land of sunshine. 
Towards the close of the Glacial Period in California, when the snow clouds became less 
fertile and the waste from sunheat greater, the lower folds of the ice-sheet, discharging 
fleets of icebergs into the sea, began to grow shallow and recede from the lowlands, and 
then more slowly up the flanks of the Sierra, in compliance with changes of climate. The 
great white mantle of ice on the mountains at length broke up into a series of glaciers, 
more or less river-like, with many tributaries, and these again were melted and divided 
into still smaller glaciers, until now only about sixty-five of the smallest of the grand 
system are left on the cool, northern slopes of the snowiest peaks. Plants and animals, 
biding their time, followed the withdrawing ice, bestowing quick animation on the new-bcrn 
landscapes. Pine trees marched up the snow-warmed moraines in long, hopeful files; brown- 
spiked sedges fringed the shores of the young lakes; new rivers roared in the canons; 
flowers bloomed around the feet of the great burnished domes; while mellow beds of soil, 
broadly outspread, furnished food to multitudes of Nature's waiting, hungry children, great 
and small— squirrels, marmots, deer, bears, elephants, and birds, etc. The warm ground 
burst into bloom, and the green, aspiring groves were haunted by songful birds; and life in 
every form grew richer and happier and more beautiful as the eventful years passed away 
over the land so lately suggestive of only consummate desolation. 

And now man has come with science and religion, arts and crafts, preaching, plov/ing, 
planting, building. Farms and towns, with homes and factories, churches and schools, 
parks and gardens, are spreading over the fertile lowlands, and wildness is going away. 
The dawn of a new day is breaking. Like the features of a landscape emerging from 
floods of fire and ice, the mountain tops of civilization, rather barren as yet, are rising over 
ignorance and vice, to develop, we hope, as harmoniously in accordance with divine law 
as did the noble scenery of California. 





CALIFORNIAN FORESTS. 
By Charles Howard Shinn. 



SUPREME among the glories of the Golden State are its immense coniferous forests. 
Wonderful also are its great groves of oak, madrono, laurel, and maple, and historic 
are its marvelous single trees, such as the Hooker oak, the Felton redwood, and the 
Grizzly Giant of Calaveras. Those who visit us, and fail to see these things, have not only 
missed a great pleasure, but have lost one of the clews to the nature of California and the 
Californians. Our mountains, our forests, and our horticulture are linked together in one 
vast alliance. If we can keep our superb forests as the orchards of the mountains, gathering 
the surplus timber crop there, as we gather the annual fruitage below, fruit-tree belt and 
forest-tree belt will meet, and every acre of our waste lands will finally become valuable. 
For more than a hundred years botanists and foresters have been studying with ever- 




A SUGAR-PINE FOREST, McCLOUD RIVER, CALIFORNIA. 



CALIFO/^XIAX FORESTS. 23 

increasing admiration the noble Californian species of trees. Luis Nee, of the Malaspina 
Expedition in 1791, had the good fortune to find and name our sturdy evergreen valley 
oak, Qnerciis agrifoiia^ which Keith so loves to paint. Bluff ship-surgeon Menzies, poetic 
Adelbert Von Chamisso, sturdy Eschscholtz, Governor Wrangel, of the Russian Colony, 
and many another old-time wanderer, carried piecemeal reports of the Californian forests 
to Europe. At last, in 1825, staunch Davie Douglass, that notable Scotch botanist, began 
those ach'enturous pilgrimages, during which he collected nearly 500 species of plants in 
California, including many of the finest of the conifers. Then came Doctor Coulter, 
Thomas Nuttall, and other explorers of the closing decade of the Spanish-Californian 
period, followed by kindly C. C. Parry, Doctor Torrey, George Thurber, and other 
botanists of the Mexican Boundary and Pacific Railroads expeditions. Later, collectors for 
the Smithsonian Institution and various universities and the workers of the State Geological 
Survey, under Professor Whitney, covered the main features of the subject, so that, while 
changes in nomenclature have occurred, and still occur, hardly any new species of trees, 
excepting the beautiful Picea Breweriana of the Siskiyous, have been listed in the last 
decade. 

The Pacific Coast forests contain fifty-three species of conifers, and twenty-seven or 
twenty-eight species of oaks, besides maples, ashes, walnuts, sycamores, madronos, buck- 
eyes, laurels, alders, the giant dogwood {^Conuis Nuttalli), and many lesser trees and 
shrubs. In the madrono (^Arbuhis Menziesii) w'e have by far the finest and largest species 
of the heath family in the world, and in the manzanitas we have another group of superb 
and indeed unique heaths. Among the conifers, also, our sequoias, our Monterey 
cypress, our California nutmeg i^Torreya Californicd)^ 2SvA many others have especial 
interest for botanists. 

The forests and woodlands of California, at the time of the American Conquest, 
probably covered about 50,000 square miles, out of 158,000 square miles of total area, it 
we include, as we should, the oak-covered foothills. At the present time we certainly have 
much less, including all grades of firewood and lumber-producing forests, half of which has 
been cut over once, or is very difficult of access, or is composed of species of less com- 
mercial value than those heretofore used. Perhaps we have 15,000,000 acres of first-class 
forest lands. Of course, if one estimates by the easy method of multiplying the length and 
width of a mountain range, we get much larger results. The Sierra alone will then contain 
about 33,000,000 acres of forest, or over 52,000 square miles. But we must leave out 
of such calculations the high, barren peaks, the grass-grown openings, the vast areas 
which, though covered with luxuriant vegetation, are far from true forests. In this sense 
the Piedmont region, so sparsely sown with scrub oaks and brittle pines that the territory 
only furnishes fuel, and must draw upon other districts for the lumber supplies of its mines 
and towns, are not to be included in the 15,000,000 acres of real forests. 

In truth California contains but two large bodies of valuable timber, both of which are 
chiefly coniferous. One, commonly known as the redwood belt, occupies a comparatively 
narrow strip of fog-swept mountains, deep canons, and narrow valleys, near the ocean 
from Monterey Bay northwards to Oregon. It is divided into lesser forests, such as the 
redwoods of Santa Cruz, of Sonoma, of Mendocino, and of Humboldt, and its fame has 
been sung in every language. 

Limited in area, the whole extent of the coast redwoods being only about 1,400,000 
acres, some twenty per cent, of which has been cut, the most recent estimates are that 
17,000,000,000 feet of lumber, board measure, remain in these redwoods, which will not 
last more than thirty or forty years, unless waste is checked. The demand for this 
beautiful and durable wood, the true Cedar of Lebanon for America, is greater each year, 
in every civilized country. Fortunately the redwood has such powers of reproduction from 
sprouts and from seeds that the present forests can easily be maintained for centuries to 
come. Nevertheless, like all forests, they must have intelligent care. 

The astonishing size of single redwoods has often been described. Giants of sixteen, 
twenty, and even twenty-four feet in diameter, whose shafts rise 300 and 400 feet in the 
air, have been measured, and some of these still stand in easily accessible situations. Single 
trees have been known to yield 300,000 feet of first-class merchantable lumber, even with the 
ordinary waste of our Californian mills. On Russian River Mr. Guerne cut 24,000,000 
feet of redwood from 160 acres of land, but this was undoubtedly one of the best quarter- 
sections in California. The redwood forests would probably average from 30,000 to 



24 CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 

50,000 feet per acre, and this is beyond the average yield of any other forest lands on 
record. 

Everywhere this great Coast Range forest, whose chief grandeur comes from the 
redwoods, has other notable features, often overlooked in descriptions. Its pines, spruces, 
and many other conifers besides redwoods, are sufficient in themselves to give it a reputa- 
tion. Its magnificent tanbark and chestnut oaks; its mountain maples, white-barked as 
Eastern birches; its broad-branched buckeyes, million-flowered in April; its scarlet-limbed, 
graceful madrono woodlands, the marvel of a continent, more glowing than Louisianian 
magnolias; its white and golden azaleas, so wild-wood sweet, and all its miles of warm, 
rich hollows and heights, bloom-burdened month after month, — these, and a thousand 
other elements, help to make up the deftly-welded charm of the land of the coast sequoia. 

Inland and north, are the subdivisions of the fir and pine region, larger and more 
varied than that of the Coast Range, and chiefly belonging to the Sierra Nevada. It lies 
along the axis of this supreme mountain range, irom Kern to Shasta, and about the inland 
peaks of the northern Coast Range. Its noblest trees are the Pinus Lambertiana, or 
sugar-pine; the Fimcs ponderosa, the great yellow pine of California; Picea nobilis, Picea 
amabiiis, and the giant white cedar {Liboced7'us deairrens). Nowhere can this forest be 
studied to better advantage than in the Shasta and Siskiyou regions, readily reached by 
every tourist. The visitor to Lake Tahoe, Yosemite, and the Calaveras Grove also sees 
something of the Sierra forests, and comes within their charm, so different from that of the 
coast redwood forests, and yet in the end even more powerful and permanent. 

Botanists divide the great Sierra forests into three belts, depending upon species and 
altitude. On the lower, or foothill belt, grow the oaks and Pinus Sabiniana. As pre- 
viously noted, the 6500 square miles of this region, extending to an altitude of 2000 feet 
above the sea, is of more value for orchards and vineyards than for timber. The middle forest 
zone reaches to an altitude of 4000 feet, with an average width of fifteen miles. Here are fine 
but fewer oaks; here the great yellow pine appears, often 200 feet in height and girthing 
twenty or twenty-five feet. Here are the black pine, the red and yellow firs, the fragrant 
Sierra cedar, and some sugar-pines. The third forest zone lies above 4000 feet, extending 
to eight or nine thousand feet above the sea, and forms the grandest mass of varied coniferous 
forest known to civilization. The yellow and the sugar-pines, the giant firs, spruces, and 
sequoias rule here supreme. Above 9000 feet Alpine species of pines and junipers carry 
the fringes of the forest to the snow-line. Among all these noble conifers the sugar-pine 
{Pinus Lambertiana) is easily the first. Single specimens have been measured that were 
300 feet high and forty feet in circumference. Douglass measured one fallen trunk whose 
circumference was fifty-eight feet. But this most valuable timber tree of the Sierra 
does not easily reproduce itself, is subject to many enemies, and is rapidly disappearing. 

The most heavily-wooded portion of the Sierra forests, aside from the districts around 
Mount Shasta, are mainly in rough, mountainous country, and in most cases are difficult 
of access. I have now spent almost all of my vacations for four years in the Californian 
forests, studying their history and present conditions. It is hard to explain to those who 
have not spent months in the high Sierra, or Coast Range, the im.mense reproductive 
powers of our coniferous forests when given a chance, and also the absolute necessity of 
some protection. Take the Placer and Nevada districts of the Sierra as an illustration. 
The forest problems in this district, which is one of the highways along which cattle and 
sheep are driven into the fastnesses of the Sierra and back into the valleys, are assuredly 
as difficult and numerous as those of any other part of California. If the leading species 
will reproduce themselves here, or if some species are gaining foothold, or if a little care and 
attention would enable the young trees to overcome all obstacles, it seems certain that 
immense areas in the Sierra elsewhere could also be reforested. The enemies of the forest 
here are, — first, the sheep; second, the cattle; third, the old trees which die, and felled by 
the winter storms, break down hundreds of the younger trees; lastly, the fires. 

Proper conditions of moisture are the prime governing facts which decide the occurrence 
of timbered lands. In the districts of California which require irrigation to produce the 
highest horticultural results, the timber belts therefore are narrow, bordering the streams 
and marking their courses. The large bodies of timber are all on the high mountain 
sides, usually descending toward the valleys on the northern or western slopes. The 
forests, or rather woodlands, of the valleys are generally but a scattered growth of trees 
like the oaks, adapted to resist drought. Unfortunately the timber is for the most part 



RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 25 

useful only for tire wood, though a few of the Californian hard woods are in demand for 
cabinet work. 

The EngHsh oak is a much more rapid grower than any Californian species, and its 
timber is much more valuable; its planting is therefore to be recommended. The Oriental 
plane tree, often called European sycamore, and several of the eucalypts have been proved 
to thrive with little moisture, and even on Hght soils yield a large amount of firewood. 
The box elder, or Negundo, is a fast-growing, hardy tree, suitable for localities too frosty 
for any of the eucalypts. The plane before alluded to is one of the best alkali-resisting 
trees known to foresters. Several of the acacias rival the eucalypts in rapidity of growth 
and in withstanding drought, and seed so rapidly that they extend their own plantations. 
The lack of California being in the line of hard woods, it is advisable to plant on a large 
scale the ashes, especially those of North Africa, Asia, and Arizona, and the European 
species, which seem to be most rapid growers here; also the cork oak, English oak, and 
Turkey oak; also the Eucalyphis rosirata, the casuarinas, possibly the Zelkowa Keaki^ — 
and in brief the best hard-wood species from districts of light and variable rainfall and of 
similar geological formation. Here, however, the rapid development of horticulture and 
the rapid increase of wealth indicate increasing demands for the finer classes of beautiful 
and durable finishing woods and for costly cases and packages. In time commercial 
forestry in California will cover a very wide range, — perhaps much greater than in Europe. 
Of course this is predicated upon the maintenance of the best of our present species. 
Even hard wood forests could not compensate us for the destruction of our coniferous 
trees. 

Every visitor to the State, and every Californian, should take an intelligent interest in 
the work of the Forestry Division of the Department of Agriculture at Washington and of 
the Forestry Stations of the University of California, and should aid the friends of forestry 
in securing wise legislation and sufficient funds to carry on forestry experiments, to intro- 
duce valuable new species, to collect and publish useful information, and to educate the 
public respecting forestry work. Under proper guardianship and management the forest 
reservations of the Sierra will preserve for all time to come the great conifers of those 
districts. But there is immediate need of a Coast Range reservation in Northern 
California. 



^^^^i^^^^jt^ /^ J-^w^L^. 



RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA — CLIMATE, PRODUCTS, STATIS- 
TICS RELATING TO VARIOUS INDUSTRIES, ETC. 

By General N. P. Chipman. 

(President, and Chairman of Commiltee on Industrial Resources, California State Board uf Trade.) 



A GROUP ol Eastern tourists gathered in the exhibition rooms of the State Board of 
Trade, and seeking information concerning the advantages of California, came to 
me as President of the organization, asking questions so pertinent and searching, 
that I have set them down here, with my effort at answering, believing that the colloquy thus 
reported may serve to benefit other inquirers, as well as my fellow-citizens of California. 

Question. — We have come here to learn something in a general way as to California, with 
a view of future residence in your State; will you help us in our search for essential facts? 

Answer. — Most cheerfully, so far as I can, in the brief time I can give you. Let us 
liave a definition to begin with. The word "resources" (according to Webster) means: 




A GROUP OF CALIFORNIA INDUSTRIES, 
QUARTZ MINING — SHIP BUILDING — FRUIT GROWING. 



RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 27 

"Capabilities of producing wealth, or to supply necessary wants; available means or 
capabilities of any kind." Assuming this definition, I will proceed. Our first and 
greatest resource is our climate. 

Q. — Hold, a moment. We have heard a great deal about your climate, and it is 
certainly a most delightful one, but there are good climates elsewhere; how do you make 
out this to be a resource ? 

A. — Pardon me. Your question implies that you have, in common with many others, 
gained no conception of the economic advantages of our climate. You probably regard it, 
as most persons do, merely as contributing to the physical pleasures of living. You must 
admit that even this narrower view is something, for if other advantages were equal or 
nearly equal, you would prefer a home where there is least physical discomfort. First, 
you must know the extent of the country embraced within the zones of substantially the 
same favorable climatic influences. I am speaking from an economic standpoint, and not 
with reference to differences in the matter of personal comfort. This climate of which I 
speak is found from San Diego on the south to the State line on the North Pacific Coast, 
and to Redding in Shasta County in the Sacramento Valley, and includes practically 
€very acre of land between the Sierra Nevada and the Pacific Ocean, below an altitude of 
from 1500 to 2000 feet. On the Atlantic Coast the parallels would reach from Boston, 
Mass., to Charleston, S. C. Latitude has but little to do with our climate. Along 
the coast the temperature is less variable and the extremes of heat and cold not so 
great, especially the heat, as in the interior valleys, but the temperature rarely falls 
below freezing anywhere, and then but a few degrees, and for a day or two. The 
interior valleys are warm in summer, and the compensation lies in the greater range of 
products and better facilities for curing the crops, than on the more humid and sometimes 
foggy coast. 

Q. — You don't mean to say you can grow oranges and lemons and olives and other 
semi-tropical fruits in these northern latitudes, do you? 

A. — Of course I do. Why should not the same climatic conditions produce like, 
results? I see that you have imbibed the common misconception that prevails in the East 
about Northern California. Let me show you. Look on the map of California hanging 
there. You see the town of Oroville, in Butte County; it is 130 miles north of San Fran- 
cisco, and 530 miles north of San Diego. Within a radius of fifteen miles around Oroville, 
there are many acres of orange and lemon groves in bearing, and producing as fine fruit as 
is grown in the State. Let me further illustrate the climate by the tree planting. In 1892 
the State Board of Horticulture took a census of the fruit trees planted in the State up to 
that time. I will take the raisin, prune, olive, and fig as illustrations. Of the 82,222 
-acres of raisins, only 9382 acres were in Southern California; the single county of Fresno, 
in the San Joaquin Valley (pointing), had nearly five times as many acres as all Southern 
•California. Of the 9228 acres of almonds, 728 acres were in the South. Of the olives 
then planted, more than half were in Northern California. In the same county of Butte 
there were nearly as many acres as were in Santa Barbara County, where Mr. Ellwood 
Cooper has made the State famous by his olive oil. Of the 49,626 acres of prunes, 42,392 
-acres were in Northern California, and more than half the fig trees. I mention this with no 
intention to make invidious comparisons of sections, but to show that tree planting is 
evidence of what I have been telling you. 

Q. — We have had the impression that all the oranges were grown in the South, and 
all the prunes in Santa Clara Valley, and all the raisins in Fresno, and that your climate 
and soil were not universally adapted to all kinds of fruit. Is this not so ? 

A. — What I have just told you is evidence to the contrary. I will give you a table 
taken from my annual report of fruit shipments of 1896, given from terminal points. It 
will show you where the fruit came from, and I will also give you the comparative shipments 
for the last seven consecutive years. These tables will illustrate the growth of the industry, 
in the State. 



28 



CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 



SHIPMKNTS OF FRUIT OUT OF THE STATE BY RAIL IN 1896. 

TONS OK 2000 POUNDS. 



PLACE OF SHIPMENT. 


GREEN 
DECIDUOUS 


CITRUS. 


DRIED. 


RAL-^INS. 


NUTS. CANNED. 


ALL KINDS. 


NORTHERN CALIFORNIA. 

San Francisco 

Oakland . . 


33-0 

2.436.1 
6,473-0 
6,798.1 
36,013.6 
1,054-3 


19-5 

379-5 

50.4 

362.1 


3.644-3 
377.0 


239-3 


300.5 

97-1 

.54-6 

86.8 

510-3 

1-3 


11,379-4 
3,119-1 
5,588.5 
1,560.5 
4,409.0 
3.738.9 


15,616.0 
6,029.3 


San Jose 


22,225.2 
9.038.3 
5,076.3 
2.963.0 

43,324.1 
4.332.4 

2,814.6 
348.0 

72.0 
972.0 

60.0 


3-0 
30,5330 

271. 1 

136.6 


34,344 3 


Stockton 


48,396.2 


Sacramento 

Marysville 


46,330-7 
8,256.2 


Total tons 


52,808.1 
5,280.8 

801.5 

552.0 

12.0 

2,484.0 


811.5 
8r.i 


31,183.0 
3,118.3 


1,050.6 
105.0 


29.795.4 
2,979-5 

2,558-2 
30.1 


158,972.7 
15.897-2 


Total carloads 


SOUTHERN CALIFORNL^.. 

Los Angeles 


52,300.5 

7,020.0 

23,484.0 

13,476.0 

2,064.0 


432.8 

200.0 
287.0 


2,822.4 
1,030.0 


61,730.0 

9,180.1 

23,855-0 

18,151.4 

3.107.2 


Orange County 

Riverside County 

San Bernardino County 

San Diego County 


900.0 

975-0 

2,794.8 

279.4 

3.397-7 


20.0 

3,8724 
387-2 
492.2 

49 
497-1 


299.4 
8.2 


Total tons 


3, 849- 5 

3849 

5,665-7 


98,344-5 
9,834-4 
9,915.5 


4,266.6 

426.6 

4,759.0 


2,895.9 

289.5 

3.269.0 


116,023.7 
11,602.3 
27.499-5 


Total carloads 


Carloads from State 


Carloads by sea 


98.0 
5 763-7 


9,915-5 


93.2 
4,852.2 


45-6 
3,443-3 


1,285.5 
4,554-5 


1,527-2 
29,026.7 


Total carloads by sea and rail . . . 











Note. — The railroad company reported all shipments from Southern California from the terminal 
point of Los Angeles. The several counties named do not, therefore, get full credit for shipments 
from their localities. 



GENERAL SUMMARY AND COMPARATIVE TABLE OF SHIPMENTS BY RAIL AND BY SEA OF 
FRUITS, WINE, BRANDY, AND VEGETABLES FOR SEVEN CONSECUTIVE YEARS. 



TONS OF 2000 POUNDS. 



l8qo. 



1 891. 



Green deciduous 

Citrus fruits 

Dried fruits 

Raisins 

Nuts 

Canned fruits 

Carloads fruits by rail and by sea . 

Carloads vegetables by rail . . . 

Carloads vegetables by sea . . . 

Carloads wine and brandy by sea 
and rail 

Carloads fruit, vegetables, wine, 
and brandy by rail and sea . . 



34,042.0 
34,209.6 
32,297.5 
20,560.1 
787.1 
40,060.9 

16,195-7 
None 

reported. 
None 

reported. 

None 
reported. 

16, 195- 7 



50,548.9 
46,921.4 
32,919.0 
22,779.1 
1,358.9 
32.395-0 
18,692.2 
None 

reported. 
None 

reported. 



59,374-5 
34,857-5 
29,762.2 
26,673.4 
2,061.9 

55,2737 
20,800.3 
None 

reported. 
None 

reported. 



4. 765. 1 1 4.832.5 
23,347-3' 25,632.8 



1893- 


1894. 


1895. 

1 


80,112.3 


90,692.2 


66,254.8 


80,757.0 


58,964.0 


115,825.5 


45,386.2 


51,828.2 


61,386.4 


37,409-9 


46,9544 


46,390.1 


1,796-5 


3,953-5 


3,234-7 


31,626.3 


60,352.6 


41,395-5 


27,708.8 


31,274-4 


33,547-2 


6.978.4 


4,276.6 


3,613-6 


None 






reported. 


410.0 


40.0 


6,620.9 


7,663.5 


8,056.8 


40,928.5 


43,624-7 


45 257.4 



57,638.3 
99,156.0 

48,522.8 

34 434- & 
4,972.6 

45,546.9 
29,026.7 

1,130.6. 

487.7 

7,609.0 



Now I want you to bear in mind that it is our climate that makes it possible for us to 
grow these semi tropical fruits, and hence it is climate becomes a resource. How many 
months of profitable labor are given the farmers of the cold regions of the East and West? 
Yes, you are right; I should think six or eight at most. In California our climate makes 
It possible to profitably use every day in the year. We have no month when vegetation, in 
some form, is not growing. Our wonderful diversity of products gives constant employ- 
ment m the field, garden, and orchard, and in all' lines of manufactures the weather 'is 
always propitious. You may not believe it, but I can take you to a property one hundred 
miles north of Sacramento, where you will find growing in the open, in one large orchard 



RESOURCES OE CALIEORNIA. 



29 



of 3000 acres, — apples, pears, cherries, prunes, plums, figs, oranges, lemons, almonds, 
raisins, apricots, olives, guavas, loquats, persimmons, — in short, every fruit to be found 
growing in Russia, France, Egypt, Greece, Spain, and in the entire Mediterranean basin. 
I doubt if a like expression of climatic possibilities can be found elsewhere on the globe. 
One other fact, and we may leave the matter of climate. California is a universal sani- 
tarium. In the mountains and in the valleys everywhere, barring of course here and there 
local influences to the contrary, the climatic conditions promote improved health to all who 
come. Special conditions, more favorable, appear in different places, but generally all 
latitudes and all regions invigorate and build up the physical functions. Our great valleys 
lie parallel to our mountain ranges and the ocean, and residents find quick and easy 
change from one to the other; the people of the interior go to the coast or the mountains for 
a change, and the coast people go to the interior and mountains. A few hours bring this 
most delightful change. * 

Q. — You talk a great deal about the wonderful diversity of your products and 
resources; give us some idea of this. Some of us live where it is only possible to raise 
corn, and wheat, and oats. 

A. — I hardly know how to convey an adequate conception of this feature of California 
life. I can only suggest it. Your intelligence and your own observation, if you will use your 
eyes and ears while here, will complete the picture. Our mountains and a large part of the 
north coast line are covered with commercial timber of high value and almost inexhaustible 
in quantity. We have sugar pine (similar to your white pine), yellow pine, almost the 
same, spruce, fir, and cedar in the Sierra and in parts of the high Coast Range. Along 
the coast, north of Santa Cruz, are the famous redwood forests. I have seen an estimate 
of the redwoods in Humboldt County alone, showing that her forests will yield two hundred 
million feet per annum for 250 years. The East must soon come to us for lumber. We now 
have a large trade in the South and Central American States and in the Australian Colonies. 
In these mountains of the Sierra and Coast Range are many delightful valleys, suitable for 
general farming and dairying, and outside the valleys our cattle and sheep find summer 
pasturage. These mountain ranges nearly throughout their length are charged with 
mineral veins, and deposits, and placers. If'it were possible to exhibit a vertical section 
of the Sierra 3000 feet deep along the track of these lodes and beds of minerals, the most 
gorgeous picture would be presented ever exposed to human gaze. That portion of our 
population engaged in mining and administering to the immediate wants of the miners 
furnishes a market for the products of the valleys, and year by year the mining industry is 
growing and becoming more important. The annual output of gold alone is about 
$15,000,000. 

Distributed among our foothills and in the mountains are valuable quarries of marble, 
granite, onyx, and other building and ornamental stones. Lying close neighbors to these 
inexhaustible riches, deposited when Nature was in her complaisant mood, are to be found 
here and there valuable beds of potter's clay, now being worked into all sorts of useful 
and ornamental forms, and in a few places are found sands of great value for the manu- 
facture of glass. 

In both the Coast Range and in the Sierra, at convenient distances apart, are 
distributed at all elevations (sometimes down to the valleys themselves), many very 
remarkable healing springs and never-ceasing, effervescing, mineralized waters, most 
delightful to the taste, and beneficial to the health. A large industry is springing up in the 
direction of an export trade for these waters. 

Q. — You seem to be making much of a portion of your State we had supposed of no 
value. Your literature deals mainly with the valleys, and apologizes for a large proportion 
of waste country. Haven't you finished with the mountains? 

A. — No; not quite. You are right about our not having given sufficient prominence 
to our mountain resources. I have only one or two more points to make, and then we 
will come down a few thousand feet — perhaps, you may think, out of the clouds. Let 
me assure you, I have not been chasing rainbows. We have at hand here in this exhibi- 
tion hall confirmation of the great value of all these things I am talking about. 

Look again at the map of California. Commence here in Shasta County, at the head 
of the Sacramento Valley. Do you see those streams marked on the map, taking their 



3 3 CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 

rise in the Sierra Mountains ? Run your eye along the mountain side, clear aown to the 
Tehachapi Pass. You see the snake-like tracks on. the map at short intervals, leading up 
to the mountain tops. These torrential streams have a fall, to the point M^here they 
debouch into the valleys, of about one hundred feet to the mile, by direct line, as the crow 
flies, or as an electric wire would run. There are lying dormant along these mountain 
slopes cheap and easily utilized forces, sufficient for all the mechanical power required to 
•operate all the railroad trains, all the factories, all the agricultural appliances to which power 
•can be applied, all the street car lines of our cities, and all the plants for lighting our streets 
and houses, and all this may be done without taking away any portion of the water needed for 
irrigating our valley lands — indeed, these , mountains may supply all these important 
utilities by harmonious and complementary systems. Now do not think this Utopian. 
Go to Folsom, on the American River, and see what is being done there for the City of. 
Sacramento, twenty-two miles away. Go to Antelope Creek in Tehama County, and see 
what is being done there for the town of Red Bluff, ten miles away. Go to Tripp's Mill on 
the Mokelumne River, and see the plants being completed by the Blue Lakes Company to 
transmit electrical power to Stockton, thirty miles distant, and to the miners of the mother 
lode in Calaveras, Amador, and Tuolumne counties. Go to the San Joaquin River and see 
the same phenomenon worked out for Fresno, thirty-five miles away and 1400 feet below, 
and after you have visited all the seats of these marvelous forces, go up the streams and see 
how many hundreds of times these forces may be utilized over and over again. 

Q. — You astonish us with these startling revelations. We stopped at Sacramento 
and noticed that the street cars were operated by electrical power, and we saw at the 
railroad shops the same manifestations, but we did not suppose the vital force of it all came 
over a little wire no larger than the pencil you hold in your hand, and so far away, too. 
Certainly your mountains are a wonderful resource of your State, in the view you present, 
and as time rolls on there will be millions of people drawing from their exhaustless wealth. 
Have you finished yet? 

A. — Not quite. One more resource I want to present, to which our mountains 
•contribute grandly and nobly. I refer to the scenic beauty and grandeur of our combined 
mountain and valley landscape effects. Now this is getting away from the utilitarian view 
of life; but should we not do this when we can do so without sacrifice to the utilities of 
life? I look forward to the time — I shall not be here, but I shall witness it — when by 
reason largely of the unique, and harmonious, and surprisingly beautiful distribution of 
our natural scenery there will be developed here in California a race of men and women, 
in all the attributes which distinguish men and women from beasts and from each other, 
superior to any other to be found on this globe. No race of people can dwell perma- 
nently for many generations in the midst of such scenic glories without exaltation of 
•character. 

Q- — Pardon me. But we are reminded of one inexcusable omission among the 
resources you have here portrayed. We want to assure you that your incomparable and 
marvelous Yosemite has spread your fame wherever a lover of Nature is to be found. We 
all intend to go there, if nowhere else. 

A. — Thank you for this just tribute to our Yosemite. Your concession in this con- 
cedes our whole case. And now a word as to the valleys. Here we find ourselves sur- 
rounded by conditions that make possible the most diversified agriculture anywhere to b^ 
found on the earth — the chief factor of which lies in our climate of which I have spoken. 
Let it be sugar-beet culture. The sugar campaign (why it is called a campaign I cannot 
imagine) in California is two or three months longer than it can be in Nebraska or Utah or 
Virginia — where there are factories now— or in any State with the same climatic conditions 
as in those States. We plant the seed here at a time when the ground is frozen fast and 
tight in Nebraska, and we run our factories long after the factories must shut down there. 
We grow more to the acre, and the beet has a greater per cent, of saccharine matter. In 
1896 the output of our factories was 4750 tons, and other plants are in course of 
•erection — one at Salinas is to be the largest in the world. ' 

Let it be the cereals — wheat, oats, barley, — and we stand at the front rank. ^ 

Our vegetable gardens are producing something the year through. In 1893 we 
shipped out of the State 7000 carloads of vegetables, and shipments were made- every 
month in the year. Among these were 1500 carloads of beans. The canned asparagus 



RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 31 

of 'this State is famous on sea and land. We are building up a large trade for garden and 
flower seeds. 

Our sheep and wool industry is important. Unlike the Pennsylvania and Ohio wool- 
growers, who are numerous but have small flocks, our growers are comparatively few, with 
large flocks. I have already referred to the method of feeding. There are individual 
owners of thirty and forty thousand head. They feed upon the grain stubble in early 
fall, but mainly subsist upon the wild grasses, and browse off the foothills and mountains. 

We convert a large quantity of our wheat into flour for export, and have a large 
China trade. 

The bee or honey industry is by no means insignificant. This product belongs with 
the orchard, and while the bee is extracting nectar from the blossoms, it is pollenizing them 
and making the fruitage more certain. I know of one ranch firm in Siskiyou County, 
engaged in cattle feeding from alfalfa, that realizes about $3000 annually, from bees that 
feed upon the bloom of the plant. In my own orchard I keep from thirty to forty stands 
of bees, and so might hundreds who do not. 

Among our forage plants, alfalfa is chief, and a most valuable plant; it is yielding from 
five to ten tons per annum per acre. It requires irrigation for the most part, but our 
mountains, as we have seen, furnish the waier. 

Our hop fields yield from forty to fifty thousand bales per annum. 

Our soil and climate are adapted to the growth of the valuable fibrous plants. Hemp 
and flax and ramie have established their value here and their adaptability to our soil and 
climate. 

It is demonstrated that we can grow leaf tobacco for cigars more nearly equal in 
aroma to the Cuban article than has been produced elsewhere in this country. 

Satisfactory experiments have been made with canaigre, from which tannin is 
-extracted, and we' find the variety of Australian wattle, or acacia, from which tannin is 
taken, is readily grown here. 

The dairy interests are found along the coast and in the mountain valleys, and are 
quite extensive. 

Our fruit-canning industr)^ gives employment to many thousands of people — chiefly 
women and children. In 1894 the shipments out of the State exceeded 6000 carloads of 
ten tons each. 

The average annual product of our Californian coast fisheries is about $5,000,000, and 
the annual whaling catch of the San Francisco fleet is not far from $1,000,000. Many 
varieties of food fishes from Eastern waters have been successfully planted in our rivers, and 
we can now buy shad for less price and for more months in the year than they can be 
obtained in Eastern markets. Eastern oysters have been transplanted here, and are 
promising to become acclimated and self-sustaining. 

Shipbuilding must soon take on large proportions here. The shipbuilding yard of 
the Union Iron Works has added much to the fame and wealth of California. 

Q. — Can you give us som.e idea of the growth of agriculture in California during the 
decade of 1 880-1 890, as shown by the census, and as compared with othf-r States, and its 
relative rank ? 

A. — Yes; I have had occasion to do this before, and have some interesting figures at 
hand. I will arrange them in tabular form, and you can study them at your leisure. 

FARM STATISTICS. 

IN CALIFORNIA. IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Increase in the Number of farms 47 per cent. 14 per cent. 

Increase in farm acreage 29 " " 15 " " 

increase in value of lands, fences, and buildings on farms ] 66 " " 32 " " 

Increase in value of property 88 " " 40 " '' 

Increase in value per capita 35 " " ^9 "' " 

Increase in value of farm implements 74 " " 25 " " 

Increase in value of live stock ... 70 " " 46 " 

Rank in total wealth 6th 

Rank in population 22d 

Rank in value of live stock 14th 

Rank in number of sheep on ranches ist 

Rank in number of horses on farms 9th 

Rank in value of farm products loth 

Rank in quantity of wheat grown 3d (1893) 



32 CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 

Increase in wheat produced 4 r per cent, (decade.) i per cent. 

Of the entire wheat crop of the United States 9 " " (1890) 

Of total value of wheat exports 25 " " (remaining States, 75 per cent.) 

Of the total barley crop of the United States 22 " " (1890) 

Rank in quantity of hay of the United States 9th (1894) 

Rank in quantity of hops of the United States ... 3d (1890) 

Rank in quantity of wine of the United States .... \ ' country's output 

Rank in dairy products 5th 

„ , . , / 1st and 2d, never 

Rank in wool -^ below 2d. 

Farm products, increase 46 per cent, (decade.) ri per cent. U. S. 

Increase in manufactures 84 " " " 74 " 

To resume my running description : Look out upon this noble bay of San Francisco, 
with an area of 450 square miles, and observe how limitless is its anchorage for the largest 
craft that floats. See that picturesque opening towards the ocean, known as the Golden 
Gate by every mariner since its discovery by Portala, and mark how ample and safe a 
gateway it is to the largest and most beautiful harbor in the world, and, withal, do not fail 
to notice how easily defended against an enemy is this refuge of safety for the world's ship- 
ping. This bay and its entrance were delivered to mankind in so perfect a condition, that 
our government has expended upon it only about $150,000. Look again at the map, 
and observe this long stretch of seacoast, and the numerous bays, inlets, roadsteads, har- 
bors, estuaries, and other means of u;.ilizing the great waterway of the Pacific. Stretch a 
line due east across the continent to the Atlantic, from Del Norte County, and another from 
San Diego, and notice the States enclosed between the parallels on the Atlantic Ocean — 
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, 
North Carolina, South Carolina. Between the parallels on the Pacific lies California alone, 
the mistress of this great stretch of commercial seacoast. Take a steamer and go with me up 
the Sacramento River, over 300 miles by river, to the town of Red Bluff, the present head 
of navigation, you will have passed through an empire tributary to this noble water course. 
As you return, run up the San Joaquin River to the city of Stockton, the chief city of the 
San Joaquin Valley. If you care to speculate of the future, as I often do, tell me whether 
it will be long before water transportation will penetrate that valley as far as Buena Vista 
Lake, near Bakersfield. I do not speak of what man has done in the way of railroads, but 
of the resources with which Nature has endowed the State. 

Q. — Excuse us for interrupting you; but really, we should ask no more of your time, 
and besides, we have learned enough to give us much to think about. Now, will you not 
tell us where, in this land so blessed by all that a lavish Providence could bestow — where 
would you advise us to make our homes when we return here to live ? 

A. — I cannot take that responsibility. Much depends upon the occupation to be 
pursued; upon the individual effort of the man himself; upon his likes and dislikes; upon 
advantages offered for education and the enjoyment of religious exercises; upon the moral 
tone of the particular neighborhood; upon the nativity of the people among whom you 
are to make your home, and a hundred other more or less important considerations that 
the homeseeker must decide for himself You have presented the one great embarrassment 
in coming to California — to know where to select a home in this vast region of desirable 
country. The merit of Southern California is attested by the fact that the people once 
attracted there seldom go elsewhere, but are content to remain in that charming country. 
It is also true that the people coming into the North, and into what may be properly termed 
the Central portion of the State, pitch their tents there, and are content and happy. 
Further than this it would not be proper for me to go, as the official head of this Association 
that has given ten years in an impartial endeavor to make our State more widely known. I 
hope you will study the exemplars of our resources, spread before you here in our exhibit, 
and that your visit amongst us may result in your becoming citizens of our State. 



^<:^£^iu^uo^ 



IRRIGATION. 
By C. E. Grunsky, C. E. 



Number of irri.£?:ators in California 14,000 First cost of irrigation works over $13,000,000 

Irrigated area in acres, exceeds 1,000,000 Annual cost of water to irrigators nearly 2,000,000 

Percentage of farms irrigated 26 Annual value of products of irrigated farms, about. 20,000,000 

Percentage of land farmed which is irrigated 18 

IRRIGATION is not a new art in California. More than one hundred years ago mission 
gardens and orchards were supplied with water brought long distances in ditches, 

and the wisdom of thus increasing and controlling the supply of water to the soil has 
been accepted without question in the southern portion of the State, and is gradually forcing 
recognition more to the northward. 

But though California is famed for its irrigation works, easily ranking its sister States 
in the matter of expenditure for irrigation systems and area irrigated, still irrigation is not 
general throughout the State. It has been developed according to local conditions and 
requirements, and is a valuable supplement to the irregular, uncertain rainfall of the 
winter months. Above all things, it enables the intelligent farmer to regulate and 
control the growing period of his farm products, which are fully as dependent on an 
abundant supply of moisture as upon the sunshine which is so bountifully supplied to the 
State, and which without the aid of moisture parches our fields at the very time when 
plant growth should be most rank. 

To irrigate, means to supply moisture artificially to the soil. Where this is done on 
a large scale, to stimulate the growth of forage plants, cereals, trees, or vines, the sprinkling 
can and garden hose, which the city resident is apt to associate with irrigation, are super- 
seded by methods requiring less time and labor. Large volumes of water are brought 
under control, generally in open ditches or canals; sometimes, particularly when the 
supply is limited and correspondingly valuable, in closed conduits, such as large pipes o'f 
iron or wood. From the main canal water reaches branch ditches, which deliver it to the 
irrigating ditches of the individual farmers, and it is applied to the land in many different 
ways, varying according to crop, according to character of soil and physical features of the 
tract to be irrigated, as well as according to volume of water available, to say nothing of 
the caprice of the individual irrigator, which often introduces variations of methods with a 
view to better adaptation to local conditions. 

We are standing on a canal levee in the month of May, looking westward over alfalfa 
fields of almost limitless extent, overhead not a cloud to be seen. At our backs is the 
great Calloway Canal, now at its maximum flow, fed by the snows melting on the summit 
of the Sierra Nevada, even on the very slopes of Mt. Whitney. This is one of the north- 
side canals from Kern River, and the spot selected for our observation is some twenty 
miles to the northward of the parent stream, whose water is under as thorough control as 
that of any other large stream in the State. The Calloway Canal is the largest irrigation 
work receiving water from this river, if the combination drainage and irrigation canal 
of the Kern Valley Water Company * (Miller & Lux), be left out of comparison. But 
this is not the only other important Kern River canal, there being such notable works as 
the Beardsley, the McCord, and the Pioneer, on the north side of "the river, and the Kern 
Island Canal, the Farmers', the Stine, the James, and many others, on the south side. 
The Calloway Canal, as it lies behind us, is a placid flowing stream about a hundred feet 
wide on the water surface, sixty feet wide on the bottom, and five feet in depth. This 
magnificent stream might^ elsewhere serve as a commercial highway; here it has other 
duties. At our left is a light wooden structure, an open-top culvert, sixteen feet wide, 
built through the canal levee. An attendant, a saiijero, is busily engaged in removing 
board after board from between upright posts, and presently he has a""large volume of 
water, sixty to one hundred and fifty cubic feet per second, tumbling through" the structure 
and rapidly filling the lateral, or branch ditch, which extends westward with the fall of the 
ground's surface, here less than ten feet per mile. Several hundred yards to our right a 

*This canal receives the entire outflow of Buena Vista Lake, and in its channel 12=; feet wide nn thf> hottntn seven 
miles" '""' ^''^' '"""' '' ""'' '^' '^"'"'"'^ '""™P '""^^ ^' '^^ ^^^^ °f Bu?naV>sLs^J4mpffora distance of ove^^ 

34 



IRRIGATION. 3^ 

second attendant has opened another similar gate, and as the branch ditches fill we see, at 
some distance along their courses, checkweirs, or drops, which hold the water in the upper 
section of each. Presently the water has risen high eaough to flow through gates in the 
sides of these ditches, and begins to spread out over the alfalfa-covered space between 
them, and again we notice that its flow westward is checked, this time by a low, flat 
embankment which extends from ditch to ditch. The water thus confined to a compart- 
ment gradually inundates its entire area. The attendants in charge are meanwhile patrol- 
ing the embankments which surround it, here and there re-enforcing weak spots, or check- 
ing the flow through some gopher or squirrel hole. An hour or two, depending upon the 
size of the compartment, or "check," elapses before we see the water creeping over the 
highest portions of the ground at the base of the main canal levee at our feet; and now one 
or two gates are opened, or breaches are made, in the embankment which 'separates the 
flooded compartment from the one next below, and the water of the first is rapidly drained 
off into the second. Gates from the branch ditches into the second compartment are 
opened, those leading to the first are closed, and thus the irrigation progresses until all 
the ground between the two branch ditches has been covered with water. 

The water absorbed by the soil under this method of irrigation is usually two to six 
inches, provided dimension of checks and volume of supply are well proportioned, other- 
wise it may be much greater. 

The area in each check, or compartment, in the great fields of the Kern County 
Land Company (J. B. Haggin) along Calloway Canal, ranges from about two to sixty 
acres. This method of irrigation is applied to any crop, but alfalfa and cereals are the 
principal culture of this district. The alfalfa field of Messrs. Miller & Lux, at the head of 
Buena Vista Swamp, also irrigated by a system of flooding similar to that just described 
has an area of 20,000 acres. 

To contrast with this, look at a hillside near Porterville, just north of Tule River. 
Here is a small irrigating ditch; it is but a step across, winding along the edge of a miscel- 
laneous orchard, five or ten acres in area. The weather is warm and the owner in person 
is out, in his blouse, leaning on his shovel, and watching the slow progress of the water as 
it creeps along some thirty plow furrows which he has drawn, extra deep, throuo-h the 
well-tilled, black alluvial soil. He has turned the water from his irrigating ditch into a 
depression parallel with and just below the ditch, and from it the water spreads over the 
ground, accumulating in the upper ends of the plow furrows which lead down the hill 
slope at regular intervals, close enough together to wet the soil thoroughly. He has 
plenty of time for conversation, and explains how easily the water is controlled; it takes 
but a shovelful of earth here and there to keep the water from breaking out of bounds, or 
to check it in one furrow, or to accelerate in another. 

In both of these cases the water flows to the land in open earthwork canals, or 
ditches, indicating an abundant supply and but little attempt at economic use. Elsewhere 
in the State, where the demand for water is relatively greater, and the products of the soil 
have greatest value, its distribution is occasionally effected in a system of pipes. There is 
then no loss in transit, or in barren subsoils. Water is turned loose upon the very spot 
to be wet, and irrigation is seen in its highest development. Duty of water, or the acreage 
per unit of volume, is there raised to its limit. 

Water is in demand for irrigation in the spring and summer months. The rivers of 
the south, being fed principally by the winter rains, and there being but little snow in the 
tributary watershed of the mountains to maintain a summer flow, are at that time dry or 
nearly dry. Those from the western slope of the Sierra Nevada which enter the great 
central valley from the east, are better sources of supply, because the natural storage of 
water in the form of snow is not exhausted until the beginning of July. 

Without attempting any description in detail of irrigation systems, it will appear at 
once from this that water storage in reservoirs becomes a common feature among the irri- 
gation systems of the south, but is rarely met with to the northward of Tehachapi. On 
the other hand, the great volumes of water available in the more northern rivers, which 
are often difficult to divert from their natural channels, have led to the use of canals of great 
capacity and to the construction of works of peculiar type for water diversion. 

The Bear Valley system of San Bernardino County, with its reservoir formed by an 
arched masonry dam sixty-four feet high, 300 feet long on the crest, three feet thick at 
the top, and only eight and one half feet thick at forty-eight feet below the top, may 



36 CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 

illustrate the one type of works; the Calloway Canal, extending thirty miles to the north- 
ward from Kern River, may illustrate another, and the great masonry dam, or overfall 
weir at La Grange, on Tuolumne River, which raises the water surface of that stream loo 
feet and cost over $500,000, may serve to show how some difficulties in the way of water 
diversion may be overcome. 

This last-mentioned structure has been undertaken by two irrigation districts organ- 
ized under the law enacted in 1887, which authorizes the establishment of districts with 
municipal powers for the acquirement of water and the construction of works for its distri- 
bution. Under its operations more than thirty irrigation districts have been organized, 
more than $10,000,000 in bonds for the furthering of irrigation works were issued, and a 
new stimulus was given to irrigation development. Much is hoped from the operation of 
this law, but the progress thus far made under the system has not been entirely free from 
disappointment. 

On all sides, however, the fact is bemg recognized that irrigation is of advantage and 
desirable, even where not necessary, and that the introduction of irrigation leads to a 
higher use of the soil. A mere glance at the vast dry-farmed grain fields of the Sacra- 
mento Valley, 150 miles long, thirty miles wide, threaded by the State's principal rivers, 
whose waters flow unused to the sea, may illustrate the possibilities of future development. 

For examples of advanced irrigation development, look to the southern counties, 
among other localities: Redlands, Riverside, East Riverside, the vicinity of Los Angeles, 
National City, and the vicinity of San Diego; also to the surroundings of Fresno, Hanford, 
or Bakersfield. 

Irrigatio7i and irrigation works on large scale: Calloway Canal, and Kern Valley 
Water Company's works on Kern River, Kern County; Alta Irrigation District Canal on 
the south side of Kings River, Fresno and Tulare Counties; Crocker-Hoffman Canal on 
the south side of Merced River, Merced County; San Joaquin and Kings River Canal 
on the west side of San Joaquin River, Stanislaus and Merced Counties, and many others. 

Notable diverting dams: Turlock and Modesto irrigation district dam at La Grange, 
Tuolumne River, Stanislaus County; Folsom Water Power Company's dam at Folsom, 
American River, Sacramento County. 

Storage works of note: Sweetwater dam, San Diego County; Bear Valley dam, San 
Bernardino County. 

Artesian wells: Those of Pomona are well known. A group of wells in the artesian 

basin of Santa Ana River supplies water to Gage Canal. In the San Joaquin Valley, near 

the northern line of Kern County, are many whose flow exceeds 1,000,000 gallons per day. 

Windmills: Within a radius of two miles of Florin, Sacramento County, are 500 

windmills, raising water from wells for irrigation, each with a duty of one to five acres. 

Steam Pumps raising water from wells for irrigation can be seen near Woodland, Yolo 
County; at Florin, Sacramento County; at Lindsay, Tulare County; Colmena, Yuba County. 



Let me arise, and away 

To the land that guards the dying day, 

Whose burning tear, the evening star. 

Drops silently to the wave afar : 

The land where summers never cease 

Their sunny psalm of light and peace, 

Whose moonlight, poured for years untold, 

Has drifted down in dust of gold ; 

Whose morning splendors, fallen in showers. 

Leave ceaseless sunrise in the flowers, 

— Edward Rowland Sill. 



CONDITION OF GOLD MINING IN CALIFORNIA. 

By Charles G, Yale. 



THE character of mining carried on in California in these days is entirely different 
from that done by the miners who came to the State in the "days of '49," when 
very simple appliances were all that they required to obtain the gold which the 
concentrating forces of Nature had gathered in the gulches, ravines, canons, creeks, river 
bars, and river beds. The pick, pan, shovel, and rocker, long-tom, or sluice, were all the 
implements necessary, for this was the era of placer mining, when fortunes were gained in 
a day, and labor, not capital, was the prime requisite for successful mining. 

At that time all the mining done was placer or surface work, and only the richer 
diggings were touched. Very little skill or experience was necessary, and the early-day 
miner collected the gold in quantities which now seem wonderful. In the one year of 1852 
the sum of $8 1, 294, 000 was taken out. Gradually the area for this surface mining began to be 
narrowed down, and attention had to be turned to other sources of the gold for which all 
were in search. To-day, however, many of these old claims are still being worked over 
and over by Chinese miners, and as they are satisfied with small wages there are plenty of 
places for them to mine. White men own most of the ground, which they lease to China- 
men, and poor mining ground is now called " Chinese diggings." 

After a time it was discovered that the great, red hills in the foothill and mountain counties 
in the central and northern part of California contained plenty of gold, though the material 
was much poorer than the concentrated shallow placers, necessitating the handling of more 
dirt. Then hydraulic mining was invented. Then, too, men began to inquire into the 
sources of the rich placers, and commenced to hunt for, open, and work the quartz ledges. 

The collection of gold from these sources is a much more expensive operation than 
taking it from shallow surface placers, and very different systems have to be adopted. The 
method is practically the same as that pursued by nature — concentrating the heavier 
valuable material and washing away the lighter — but man's efforts are slow, and it takes 
time and money to handle the material. 

With the necessary change in the character and system of mining came an entire 
change in the social conditions and methods of the miners themselves. People who only 
know about gold mining in California from the old stories of the mining camps in the 
" days of '49," would recognize none of the features should they visit the mining regions 
of the State in 1897. The nomadic habits of the miner have entirely disappeared, and 
with them the recklessness, drunkenness, and extravagance which were supposed to univer- 
sally prevail. It is proper to note, however, that such habits were not universal by any 
means, though among the thousands who came were numbers of men who made necessary 
lynch law and vigilance committees. Around all the larger mines of the present day are 
permanent settlements, where the miners live with their families, content to work for wages 
and a sure income. The larger mining towns of the State, where there are a number of 
mines in operation, have lost entirely the old features of mining- camp life. The people 
have settled down to mining as a permanent business, and conduct it like any other 
industry. 

The principal producing mines of the State now belong to private companies or 
individuals. Many small claims and prospects are owned by individual working miners, 
but capital is required to open and work quartz and gravel claims to conduct the business 
on an economical and profitable basis. Many of the wage-working miners, of course, do 
more or less prospecting for themselves, and many own small claims, which they work in 
a desultory manner until they can be disposed of to people in a position financially to bring 
them to a producing condition. California, as the pioneer of the gold-producing States 
of the Pacific Coast, and the one which has made the greatest aggregate yield, has very 
naturally long since passed its " boom" period, and its mining affairs are conducted on the 
same principles as any industrial business. 



38 



CONDITION OF GOLD MINING IN CALIFORNIA. 39 

The auriferous gravels are worked by both the hydrauHc and the drifting process. If 
the bed or channel of gravel is only covered by soil or earth which may be washed away 
by water thrown against the bank under pressure, then the whole mass, soil, gravel, and 
all is washed down to obtain the gold. If the channel of gravel is covered with hard 
lava which the water will not break up, then the deposit is "drifted"; that is, long 
tunnels are run under the lava capping, and the bottom stratum of rich gravel is removed 
and then washed on floors or crushed in "cement mills." The upper portion is in this 
case not disturbed, only the richer gravel being taken out. 

These deposits of gold-bearing gravel were laid down by a system of prehistoric or 
"dead" rivers, whose channels were wider and slopes steeper than the present rivers. 
Through many centuries rain and frost disintegrated the rocks, and the rushing rivers 
carried the detritus down toward the valleys. The numerous quartz veins in the moun- 
tains were thus broken up, and the freed gold, being heavy, collected in the beds of these 
rivers, while the lighter detritus was transported further down. The beds of these old 
rivers constitute what are to-day called the auriferous gravel channels. They owe their 
richness to the enormous amount of erosion which had taken place, an amount considered 
by geologists to have been equal to a layer of rock several thousand feet in thickness. 
After these auriferous channels were thus tilled and the gold collected in the gravels, 
volcanic eruptions occurred, and immense streams of molten lava hundreds of feet deep 
flowed directly down their beds. In this way the auriferous gravel channels were covered 
or buried by what is called the lava cap. When these masses of lava cooled and hardened, 
the rivers of the present day began to carve their courses downward from the mountains, 
and naturally sought the softer and lower portions, and owing to the hardness of the lava 
often formed channels by the side of the ancient beds. We see the result of their cutting 
in the canons of the present streams, which are often one or two thousand feet deep. The 
old buried rivers under the lava are therefore high above the present ones. A great 
mountain ridge, or " divide," extends for many miles from the main range. Hundreds of 
feet below the top of this divide, and buried deep under lava is the graveled channel of a 
Pliocene river. On each side of this great ridge, and one or two thousand feet below the 
bed of the old buried river, flow the rivers of to-day. The new streams, in cutting their 
channels, often cross and recross the old ones, and thus washing out the gold the Cahfor- 
nian pioneers found so abundant in the streams. 

Miners run long tunnels into the sides of these " divides," or ridges, until they reach 
the old gravel channel carrying the gold. The lowest or richest portion of this gravel is 
then mined, and by drifting removed. If it is hard and "cemented," it is crushed in 
stamp mills and the gold saved; or if it is not cemented, the gravel is placed on washing 
floors, and a stream of water under pressure turned upon it, by which it is disintegrated and 
the gold freed and saved, the rock, sand, earth, etc., passing away down the flumes. This 
bottom cement gravel pays from three dollars to ten dollars per mine-carload, and when they 
breast out from fifty to 150 feet wide on the channel and six to eight feet high, the channel 
will yield from $100 to $200 per running foot, and often very much higher. These lava- 
capped divides covering the buried rivers are found in many counties in the upper part of 
California. 

As stated, when these old river channels are under the lava they are "drifted." 
When there is no lava capping and only a bank or deposit from fifty to 150 feet high 
covered with trees, shrubs, etc., the hydraulic process is used, and the mass is washed 
away. The hard lava capping of the old rivers has resisted the elements better than the 
softer rocks, so that what were formerly the lowest points, or rivers, are now the higher 
mountain ridges. In some places the bones and teeth of elephants and other large 
animals are found, and pine cones and leaves are taken out as fresh looking as those of 
to-day, but they soon crumble on exposure to the air. 

In hydraulicking a very much larger amount of dirt has to be handled than in drift- 
ing, but the process is cheaper. Ditches, reservoirs, and pipe lines are built, and water 
brought to the mine under heavy pressure. This is thrown against the bank through a 
nozzle, or "giant," as it is called, and tears down the gravel at a wonderful rate. Tun- 
nels are run, in which blasts of powder are placed, and the bank is thus shaken up. Some- 
times 20,000 or 30,000 pounds of powder are exploded at one time, disintegrating many 
thousand cubic yards of earth which the water then attacks. The material thus washed 
down passes through flumes or sluices, where the gold is caught in riffles with quicksilver, 



40 



CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 



the rock and earth passing on to a dumping place. In this way all labor of shoveling or 
handling is avoided, and immense amounts of material may be moved in a short space of 
time. It can be imagined how much material is moved by hydraulic mining when it is 
stated that the bulk of this auriferous earth is only worth three or four cents a cubic yard; 
yet these mines in the height of their prosperity yielded eight or ten million dollars a year. 
Mines of this character are quite expensive to open and equip, since so large a water supply 
has to be provided, and ditches, reservoirs, flumes, etc., have to be built and maintained. 
Therefore the larger and more productive ones are only worked by large companies. 

There was a serious controversy in California about this class of mining, which lasted 
some years. In washing away the high banks or hills, the debris, or tailings, as the waste 
material is called, filled in and injured the navigable streams and the farming lands along 
their banks. Long and costly and bitter controversy between the farmers of the valley 
and the miners of the mountains finally resulted in closing the hydraulic mines down by 
injunctions of the United States courts, and these mines, large and small, were compelled 
to stop work wherever their debris went into the main streams or their tributaries. Thus 
great productive hydraulic mining properties, with their extensive ditch systems, reser- 
voirs, and mining plants, in which about one hundred millions of dollars were invested, 
became unproductive and valueless. This condition of affairs continued for some years, 
and the annual gold product of the State fell off materially. 

The towns and camps in the hydraulic mining regions of the State became depopu- 
lated, and large numbers of people were thrown out of employment. This condition of 
affairs continued for ten or twelve years, until the matter was agitated before Congress, 
which resulted in a law being passed which permits these auriferous gravel mines to be 
operated by the hydraulic process under certain conditions and restrictions. The essential 
features of the law are, that all such mines operated under the hydraulic system shall 
impound, or restrain, their debris, or tailings, and prevent them entering the navigable 
streams, or injuring the land of other parties. The California Debris Commission, consist- 
ing of three United States engineer officers, is empowered to issue licenses for mining by the 
hydraulic process under this law, when it is satisfied that the debris dams or impounding 
works are sufficient to restrain the debris resulting from the mining operations of the claim. 
The hydraulic miner must make application to the Commission for permission to mine, 
and submit plans for the proposed restraining works, which are subject to the approval of 
the Commission. Each separate application is advertised for a specified time, and a hear- 
ing is held before the Commission, at which those opposed to the issuance of the license 
may state their reasons. After a thorough investigation, if satisfied that the debris can 
be restrained, a license to operate by the hydraulic process is granted, and the mine may 
begin operations. If the engineers see any reason to beHeve, however, that damage will 
be done to rivers or to individuals by the operation of the mine, no license is granted, and 
the mine may not be legally worked. Moreover, even after a license is granted, if debris 
is, for any reason, permitted to enter a stream, or if it is not properly impounded, the 
license may be recalled. This Government Commission has jurisdiction over all hydraulic 
mines in the drainage basin of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers and their tributa- 
taries. In the northwestern part of California, in Siskiyou and Trinity counties, where 
there are extensive gravel deposits and many hydraulic mines, there is no restriction on 
hydraulic mining. The hydraulic mines in that section dump their tailings, or debris, into 
the tributaries of the Klamath River, which has been officially declared a non-navigable 
stream. 

In those parts of the State where licenses must be obtained, the miners themselves 
must bear the expense of the impounding works for their respective mines, and for this 
reason many hundreds of the smaller ones, especially in Sierra and Plumas counties, where 
they are numerous, are still closed down. Their owners, having become impoverished by 
enforced cessation of operations during a series of years, have not generally the money to 
construct the necessary impounding works. Still, since the law was passed, some hun- 
dreds of the hydraulic mines have been granted licenses to mine, and are now being ope- 
rated, but not on the former scale, as by having to impound and settle their debris, they 
are restricted in the amount of gravel they may wash in a given time. 

There are still very large areas of this auriferous gravel which have not been touched 
by the miners. These undeveloped gravel channels need the aid of capital to be brought 
to a productive stage. 



CONDITION OF GOLD MINING IN CALIFORNIA. 41 

The drift gravel miners are not restricted in their operations. These are also mines oi 
auriferous gravel, but the ground being covered by a lava capping, it is impossible to wash 
the gravel by the hydraulic system. 

In the hydraulic and drift, as well as in the quartz mines, experience shows that 
those enterprises into which capital has been put pay the best profit, and that gold mining 
on a small scale is not proportionately so remunerative as that carried on in a systematic 
manner, backed by abundant means. The long tunnels, through barren material, to reach 
the channel in the drift mines; the money required for the reservoir, ditch, and pipe systems 
of the hydraulic mines, and the expensive machinery for the quartz mines, account for this 
feature of gold mining. It doubtless may seem strange to many that investment of capital 
is necessary in this particular kind of industry, and that a man having a gold mine should 
be in need of financial help. Still, as in almost every other kind of business, much more 
can be done with capital than without it. If the prospector in the mining regions finds a 
ledge of gold-bearing rock which is rich near the surface, he may take out considerable 
gold at once, but generally they have to sink deep shafts to properly open the mine. He 
may sink a short shaft and find good indications of permanency in his ledge, but to sink 
deeper he must have a pump to take out the water and a machine hoist to take out waste and 
ore. He needs timbers, supplies, and labor. Then he must have some sort of mill to 
crush his ore, and if there are sulphurets he needs concentrators to save them. All these 
things cost money, and money few prospectors have. Even if he succeeds in getting 
down a couple of hundred feet, his requirements become greater, for heavier machinery is 
needed, and also some kind of power, steam, electricity, or water. This involves engines, 
boilers, etc. The result of this is, that there are in all the mining counties of California 
hundreds of half-opened mines where men have had to quit work, simply because they did not 
have the money to go on further with development or to furnish machinery to work the 
claims. Naturally, most of such claims are for sale. Again, some small company may 
start to work such a claim and try to bring it to a producing stage and then have to quit 
because they have not funds enough. Nearly everywhere there is apt to be barren ground 
through which it is expensive to sink, and floods of water sometimes drown out a mine not 
properly equipped with pumping machinery. 

The rich companies often have to spend one, two, or three hundred thousand dollars, 
and do not expect any returns until this money is spent in development and equipment of 
the mine. Some mines are unprofitable when worked in a small way, which pay hand-- 
somely when properly developed and equipped. 

Most of the gold now being produced in California comes from the quartz mines 
which are found in the mountainous portions of nearly the whole State. They occur in 
association with all the different kinds of metamorphic and eruptive rocks, but are par- 
ticularly abundant in what is termed the auriferous slate. Some of the quartz mines of 
the State which have been worked for twenty or thirty years are still producing, and 
several are now worked to a depth of over 2000 feet. 

A quartz ledge or vein is a fissure in the earth which is filled with quartz containing 
more or less gold; that is, the one you own generally has less and that o± some other 
fellow near by has more. The country rock enclosing the ledge on both sides is barren, 
and the ledge matter is what the miners have to get out as best they may. Shafts are 
sunk, and drifts and crosscuts run to extract this ore, and all the openings thus made have 
to be timbered up strongly to prevent caves. Often a great amount of valueless material 
or waste has to be moved to properly work the mine, so that it is not only the gold- 
bearing rock which is hoisted to the surface. Where the lay of the mountain permits, the 
mines are opened by tunnels instead of shafts, but in some cases both tunnels and shafts 
are made on the same mine. Where a tunnel is possible, the water drains off itself, but in 
shafts the water must be pumped or hoisted out in baling tanks. At the bottom of the 
shaft is a sump, or continuation of the shaft, where the water collects, and from which it is 
pumped. In breaking down the rock in running the drifts, etc. , holes have to be drilled 
and powder used for blasting. These ledges are of an average width of two to three feet, 
and extend downward to an indefinite depth. Sometimes they are thirty, forty, or fifty 
feet wide and sometimes only a few inches. Generally speaking, the wide ones are poorer 
in gold, on the average, than the small ones; still the very wide ones of low grade are pre- 
ferred to the small but richer ones by companies which invest in these properties. 

The large veins of medium or low grade ore are supposed to be more lasting than the 



42 CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 

small ones, and pay very handsomely when extensive crushing mills are provided. In all 
these mines some portions are poor and others rich, but there is no way of telling anything 
about this in advance, unless one happens to be like the man who was sure that there was 
money in a certain mine because he had put in $50,000 and never got it out. When men 
tell about quartz from these mines running from $500 to $1000 per ton, it can be put down 
as ' ' bosh, " or in that case there is very little of the rock. ' ' Pockets, ' ' or small bunches of 
ore, as rich as that are sometimes found in a ledge, but they are very scarce and are often 
succeeded by barren rock, which may continue a long time before another pocket is found. 

When the ore is raised to the surface from the mine, it is dumped in bins or hoppers 
above the mill, from which it falls by gravity into large, steam-driven rock- breakers, which 
crush it into small pieces, and thence it slides, again by gravity, into what are called ore- 
feeders. One of these is placed in behind each battery of five stamps of the mill, and is so 
arranged that at each drop of a stamp a small quantity of ore is fed under the stamps. 
The amount to be fed may be regulated according to the character of the ore. 

The stamps, which weigh from 900 to 1000 pounds each and drop 90 to 100 times 
each per minute, are arranged in groups of five, each five having a mortar of their own. 
In this are five steel dies on which the shoes of the stamps drop, the ore being 
crushed between the shoe and die. In the mortar in which the stamps drop on the ore, 
quicksilver is placed so as to catch the gold as it is freed from the rock. Water passes 
through the mortar continually and washes the ore, as it is crushed, through fine screens 
on to inclined aprons or small sluices placed in front of each battery. These aprons are 
covered with sheets of silver-plated copper on which amalgam or quicksilver is placed, so 
as to catch any gold which escapes from the mortars with the finely crushed ore. These 
aprons are scraped periodically to remove the amalgam and gold. The amalgam — which 
is gold and quicksilver mixed — from the mortars and from these plates is placed in a 
buckskin bag, and the free quicksilver squeezed out, the hard amalgam remaining being 
then retorted. The heat in the retort evaporates the quicksilver, which is saved by 
being again condensed, and the gold is left in the retort. This is then melted into bars, 
sent to the Mint and turned into coin, and we all fight in our various ways to get hold of 
as much of it as we can. 

In addition to the "free" gold, — that is, in a pure native state — most of the ore in 
these ledges carries sulphurets or pyrites of iron, also containing gold, but in such a condi- 
tion that it will not amalgamate with the quicksilver. The crushed ore, therefore, after 
going through the batteries and over the aprons as described, passes on to concentrators 
on the floor below. These consist of inclined endless rubber belts, which are revolved and 
have also a shaking motion. They are so arranged and operated that the light tailings or 
worthless material pass away, while they collect and concentrate the heavy sulphurets 
and any stray gold or amalgam which may have passed through the mortars. A concen- 
trator is used for each five-stamp battery. The sulphurets thus collected are roasted in a 
furnace to drive off the sulphur, and are then so treated by the chlorination process that 
the goM is first dissolved and then precipitated from the solution. Only a i^sM mills have 
a chlorination plant of their own, most of the miners selling their sulphurets to the smelt- 
ing works. A ton of rock may contain only from one to three per cent, of sulphurets, and 
these are often worth from a hundred to a thousand dollars a ton, but it takes time and 
rock to get a ton of them. The usual average is from one to one and a half per cent, of 
sulphurets, worth from $75 to $150 per ton. 

In some mines there is httle or no free gold, but the rock has to be crushed and con- 
centrated to obtain the sulphurets which carry the gold values. After passing all these 
appliances the pulp, as the crushed ore is called, still has some value, and is led through 
sluices to a canvas plant. Broad sheets of ordinary canvas are spread smoothly on 
slightly inclined surfaces, and over these the tailings pass, carried by the water, and clear 
water is added. The little fibers of the canvas catch very fine gold and rich "slimes" 
which may have escaped the other appliances. At some mines the cyanide process is 
made use of to save gold from ores which it is difficult to treat by the ordinary milling 
process, and cyaniding is also done with tailings which still contain some gold. By this 
process the finely crushed ore is placed in vats and treated with a weak solution of cyanide 
of potassium, by which the gold is dissolved, and from this solution the gold is afterward 
precipitated by passing it through zinc sponge, and is thus recovered. 

In some small mines where they cannot afford a stamp or roller mill, the old-fashioned 



CONDITION OF GOLD MINING IN CALIFORNIA. 43 

Mexican arastra is used for crushing and amalgamating the ore. This is a circular bed of 
stone or rocks inclosed by a rim, and having a vertical central shaft on which are horizontal 
arms. To these arms are fastened by chains great stones with a flat under surface, which 
are dragged by the arms over the stone-paved surface of the central circular bed. Horses 
or mules are used to give the circular motion necessary to drag the stones around 
the circle. Water and quicksilver are mixed with the pulp or ore. The stones move 
slowly around the circle, grinding the ore and polishing the tiny specks of gold which 
the quicksilver then catches. Every now and then they "clean up" by adding water and 
thinning down the pulp until it is washed away, leaving the quicksilver and gold in the 
crevices of the bed of the arastra. A great many miners use these machines for working 
their own ore when it is rich enough to pay by this process, which is quite slow. The 
miners can build this sort of a mill themselves. Sometimes they are run by steam or 
water power and used for working the tailings from a mill. There are several other forms 
of mills for crushing ore from mines, and some with rollers are used where the rock is not 
very hard. 

There are various forms of placer, or surface, gold mining carried on in different 
parts of California. The beach mining is rather a peculiar feature. In many places along 
the coast the magnetic iron sands, or " black sands," as they are called, carry an appre- 
ciable quantity of gold, and many of the ocean beaches have black sand mines in opera- 
tion. Ihe upper, or lighter, stratum of white beach sand is removed, and the lower, 
heavier stratum of black sand is washed in sluices. It is difficult to save the gold, because 
there is so little difference in the specific gravity of the particles of black iron sand and the 
fine, light, flaky gold. Quicksilver is used in the sluices. The black sands are also 
washed in a machme, called a "tom," the sand being elevated by a Chinese pump and 
passed through this appliance. The large toms handle about 200 tons of sand in twenty- 
four hours. 

These sands often carry a small percentage of platinum, which is also saved. The 
beaches are richer at some periods than at others. When the winds throw the ocean 
waves at a cutting angle along the beach, the sands are concentrated by the wave-action, 
the lighter being carried away, and the auriferous black sand being in a more concentrated 
condition. These sands usually do not contain more than from seventy-live cents to a 
dollar and a half per ton, but sometimes rich patches are found. 

River-bed mining is carried on at many of the mountain streams. In some places 
extensive flumes are built to carry the water of the whole river during certain months when 
the river is low, and the river bed is thus laid bare, so the gravel may be handled and the 
gold obtained. Along the Klamath and some other rivers the miners build wing-dams, so 
as to divert a portion of the water and leave a small section bare. Then they put in current 
wheels, which operate pumps to take the water out of the ground they are working, and 
thus obtain the auriferous gravel, etc., and wash it in sluices, getting the gold. At high 
stages of the water this kind of mining cannot be carried on. 

From all classes of gold mines the average annual product of the State for the past 
forty-eight years has been about twenty-six and a half million dollars, the total output of 
gold since 1849 having aggregated $1,282,398,779. The annual yield is now between 
sixteen and seventeen million dollars, and has shown an increase in each of the last three 
years. In view of the many developments and investment of capital, the annual yield is 
expected to reach twenty millions of dollars before long. 

The conditions under which mining is carried on have changed materially for the 
better. The mining country has been more densely settled, means of transportation have 
vastly improved, machinery has been perfected and cheapened, all supplies have become 
cheaper, and radical changes have taken place in the systems of mining and of handling 
and treating ores. High-priced officials and supernumeraries have been done away with ; 
there is a closer system in conducting operations; and all the appliances necessary are not 
only more perfect but cheaper. As a result of all these factors, ore is now mined and 
milled at a much less cost than formerly, and mines that twenty years ago would run a 
company in debt can now be made to pay a handsome profit. Each year has shown a 
gradual reduction in cost, and improvement in the method of treating ores, and with 
every dollar off this cost, hundreds of mines have been added to the list of producers. 
The successful treatment at low cost of the rich auriferous sulphurets found in the ores of 
nearly all our quartz mines, has been an important factor, as at one time litde attention 



44 



CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 



was paid to them, whereas now all mills are equipped with appliances for saving them for 
ultimate treatment, in addition to the ordinary methods for saving the free gold. 

There is plenty of opportunity for investment in the gold mines of the State, but this 
should not be undertaken by those unfamiliar with the business, except upon the advice of 
persons of experience. Even those long in the business, and who have invested large 
sums, do not purchase properties or interests in them on their own judgment alone, but 
employ skilled experts to make examinations and reports. There are so many conditions 
to be taken into consideration that it is foolish to invest money in this kind of property 
without very careful examination in advance. 

While the principal product of the mineral world in California is gold, there are many 
other substances mined, which swell the total valuation of the mineral output of the State 
to upwards of twenty-four million dollars a year. Several of these products are not mined 
in other States. Quicksilver, for instance, is nowhere else mined on this continent, and 
since we first began working it California has produced upwards of seventy-seven million 
dollars' worth, and continues to produce it at the rate of over a million dollars a year. 

For the last seventeen years the total silver product has been over twenty milUion 
dollars. 

All the borax in this country comes from California and Nevada, and eleven twelfths 
of that is from California. The annual output of this substance is from six to seven 
hundred thousand dollars. 

This State produces more rock asphalt than any other, and is the only one yielding 
natural liquid asphalt. 

Magnesite, used in paper manufacture and for furnace linings, is mined here only. 

The only product of chrome in the United States is from California, and all the 
antimony is from this State and Nevada. 

The only platinum found in the United States is taken with the gold from the beach 
black sands and from the black sands of the auriferous gravel mines. 

The mineral oils are very valuable, and we stand sixth among the other States in value 
of petroleum product. The oil fields are only partly developed, there being still large 
areas of oil-bearing ground yet unopened. 

The value of the structural materials, including cement, clays, limestone, granite, 
sandstone, macadam, paving blocks, slate, marble, onyx, etc. , is over two million dollars 
a year. 

The following official statement of the State Mineralogist shows the amount and 
value of diff^erent substances mined in California last year: — 



MINERAL OUTPUT OF CALIFORNIA IN 1896. 



Amount. 

Antimony 17 tons . 

Asphaltum .... 20,914 tons . 
Bituminous Rock . 49, 456 tons. 

Borax 6, 754 tons. 

Cement 9,500 bbls . 

Chrome 786 tons . 

Clays — Brick . . . 24,000 M . . 
Pottery, etc. 41,907 tons . 

Coal 70, 649 tons . 

Copper .... 1,992,844 lbs . 

Gold 

Granite 182,261 cu. ft. 

Gypsum 1,310 tons . 

Lead 1,293,500 lbs. . 

Lime 302,750 bbls . 

Limestone .... 68, 184 tons . 
Macadam . , . 646,646 tons. 
Magnesite 1,500 tons. 



Value. 

% 2,320 00 

362,590 00 

122,500 00 

675,400 00 

28,250 00 

7,775 00 

524,740 00 

62,900 00 

161,335 00 

199.518 70 

17,181,562 70 

201,004 00 

12,580 00 

38,805 00 

261,505 00 

71,112 00 

510,245 00 

11,000 00 



Manganese . 
Marble . . . 
Mineral Paint 
Mineral Water 
Natural Gas 
Onyx . 
Paving Block: 
Petroleum 
Platinum 
Quicksilvei 
Rubble . 
Salt . . . 
Sandstone 
Serpentine 
Silver . . 
Slate . . 
Soda . . 



Amou 
. . 318 
■ 7,889 
• • 395 
808,834 



NT. 

tons . 
cu. ft. 
tons . 
gals . 



. 3,000 

■ 4,161 

1,257,780 

. . 162 

• 30,765 
3f3,973 

• 64,743 

• 58,542 

• 1,500 



cu. ft. 
M . . 

bbls . 
ozs. . 
flasks 
tons . 
tons . 
cu. ft. 
cu. ft. 



. 500 
3,000 



sqrs . 
tons . 



Total value 



Value. 

% 3,415 00 

32,415 00 

5,540 00 

337,434 00 

111,457 00 

24,000 00 

77,584 00 

1,180,793 00 

944 00 

1,075,449 00 

329,639 00 

153,244 00 

28,378 00 

6,000 00 

422,463 60 

2,500 00 

65,000 00 



^,291, 398 00 



The total value of the mineral product of the State in 1895 was $22,844,664.29. 

In nearly all these branches of mineral industry there is room for increase of product, 
as more capital is invested in the various mines. There are numerous known deposits which 
are not worked or utilized, owing to lack of transportation facilities, or because of cost of 
shipping to markets at a distance. 



MINING. 



45 



Generally speaking, the gold mines are in the Sierra Nevada range of mountains, and in 
the foothills of the desert regions. In the Coast Range are found the mines of quicksilver, 
chrome, manganese, coal, bituminous rock, etc. The main oil fields are in the southern 
part of the State. The auriferous gravel mines are in the upper part of the State, but the 
gold quartz mines are found in the extreme north, extreme south, and all along the inter- 
vening distance. 

The following table from the official statement of the State Mineralogist for 1896 shows 
the relative importance of the different counties of California in point of mineral production, 
the amounts in dollars including the values of all substances mined in the respective 
counties named for the year: — 



County. 

Alameda 
Alpine . 
Amador 
Butte . . 
Calaveras 
Colusa . 
Contra Costa 
Del Norte . 
El Dorado 
Fresno . . 
Humboldt 
Inyo . . . 
Kern . . . 
Lake . . . 
Lassen . . 
Los Angeles 
Madera . . 
Marin . . . 



Value Mineral 

Product, 1896. 

I 230,630 00 

400 00 

1,593,021 02 

755.480 88 
.1,555,888 85 

14,584 GO 

138, [09 00 

24,150 GO 

819.481 22 
85,884 60 

308,546 85 
497,626 48 

710,010 35 
264,944 00 

40,300 00 

1,072,738 55 

186,904 84 

93,260 00 



County. 
Mariposa 
Merced . 
Mono . . 
Monterey 
Napa . . 
Nevada . 
Placer . 
Plumas . 
Riverside 
Sacramento . . 
San Benito . . 
San Bernardino 
San Diego . . 
San Francisco . 
San Joaquin . . 
San Luis Obispo 
San Mateo . . 
Santa Barbara . 



Value Mineral 
Product, i8g6. 

I 335-817 44 

1,250 00 

562,042 31 

1,000 00 

495.366 00 

2,392,160 42 

i>735,75o 55 

462,609 61 

355,598 00 

189,268 00 

91,095 00 

1,003,889 80 

603,991 00 

322,667 00 

120,157 00 

37,271 00 

2,500 00 

383,159 00 



County. 

Santa Clara 
Santa Cruz 
Shasta . . 



Value Mineral 

Product, 1896. 

. % 318,415 00 

239,199 00 

813,593 29 



Sierra 786,598 27 

Siskiyou .... 1,091,917 47 

Solano 23,413 00 

Sonoma 135,146 00 

Stanislaus .... 18,435 00 

Tehama 475 00 

Trinity 1,435,365 3° 

Tuolumne .... 1,070,470 13 

Tulare 25,752 00 

Ventura 292,800 00 

Yolo 378 00 

Yuba 171,687 77 

Unapportioned . 380,200 00 



$24,291,398 00 



cJi^^^"^^ 



MINING. 

By Charles E. Uren. 



PROBABLY no industry is less known to the general public than mining, and 
inquiries concerning its particular location within the State and its status, as a 
general rule, meet with misleading and erroneous answers from those unfainiliar 
with it. 

The great mineral wealth of California is known incidentally throughout the world, 
but details such as would be of an advantage to those visiting the State, either for the 
purpose of settlement or for pleasure, are meager at the best. 

Mining is the leading industry in most of our northern counties, and later develop- 
ments include many of the southern counties among the mineral-producing sections of the 
State. The leading mining counties, according to their record as bullion-producers, are, 
Nevada, Amador, El Dorado, Placer, Calaveras, Tuolumne, Butte, Shasta, Trinity, Sis- 
kiyou, Mariposa, Lake, Kern, and Fresno. 

The inception of ^c/fl^-mining in California was at Coloma, in 1848. Subsequently 
the shallow, or ravine and river, placers were worked throughout the entire gold- 
producing counties, and exhausted. Mining of this character finally resulted in the 
discovery of larger gravel deposits, situated in close proximity to the ravines, known as 
bench or bar claims. The extreme depth of gravel deposits of this character rendered it 
desirable to devise means for cheaply handling the increased quantity of auriferous gravel, 
wherein the gold had been more evenly distributed — methods which eventually developed 
the hydraulic system of mining. 



46 CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 

This character of mining- was prosecuted vigorously for a number of years, and was 
very profitable, but owing to the litigation that followed, known as the " Debris Suits," 
which brought the farmer who owned land below the outlet of the minesin conflict with 
the miner, the hydraulic miner was restrained from dumping his tailings into the rivers, 
and laws were enacted providing for properly impounding the debris — an expense entailed 
upon the miner, and which made hydraulic mining thus encumbered unprofitable, except in 
localities favorable for safely impounding the tailings. 

The partial cessation of hydraulic mining led to more active development in drift 
mining. This class of mining is confined to the gravel deposits of the old river channels, 
which traverse a greater part of Northern and Eastern California. Recent developments 
have shown that these deposits are very extensive, and practically inexhaustible. _ Among 
the number of successful mines of this character might be mentioned, the Morning Star, 
Mayflower, Bruce and Wheeler, and Waterhouse and Lester Mines of Placer County, The 
Magalia of Butte County, and the Harmony Mines of Nevada County, which have all been 
great bullion-producers. The auriferous gravel channels extend from Humboldt County to 
Fresno, and are being systematically developed throughout. 

The discovery of gold in quartz was made at the Gold Hill Mine, Grass Valley, 
Nevada County, in October, 1848. This was the beginning of a new era in mining, and 
led to the manufacturing of milling and mining machinery. The honor of the first gold 
mill constructed is divided between the Gold Hill Mine, Grass Valley, Nevada County, and 
the Old Benton Mill, on the Merced River, in Mariposa County, constructed by General 
John C. Fremont. 

Quartz mining is to-day the leading mining industry of California, and its develop- 
ment has been successfully carried on in all of the counties. Grass Valley Mining District 
has rnore than ten miles of hoisting shafts, and about fifty-one miles of levels and drifts, 
while Nevada City, four miles distant, has more than two miles of hoisting shafts and 
twenty miles of levels or drifts. 

Along the Mother Lode, in Amador, Calaveras, Tuolumne, and Mariposa Counties, 
are numerous shafts, varying in depth from 2100 to 1000 feet, with several miles of lateral 
drifts. These figures tend to show the vast amount of capital expended in mining and the 
tendency to permanency of our quartz mines. 

Does mining, from the practical demonstration thus far made, prove a paying, and 
therefore a business, proposition ? From the general information to be had, and the record 
of bullion produced from the several counties named, it is safe to say that mining in 
California, when properly and economically managed, pays better, as a rule, than any 
other business. 

During the period of placer mining, especially when applied to creek or river 
mining, all of the available gravel was worked ozit. Hydraulic mining is now limited to 
places favorable to the construction of mipounding dams, to comply with the present 
restrictions on that class of mining. Drift mining is yet in its infancy. 

The restriction of hydraulic mining stimulated quartz mining, which is now the most 
prominent industry. The limit of pay in this class of mines has not yet been demonstrated 
as far as depth and lateral extent is concerned. 

The best evidence of permanency is the great depth attained by the following mines, 
with rich ore still continuing in depth: Idaho Mine, 2183 feet vertical and over 3000 feet 
on the dip of the vein; Empire Mine, 2100 feet; North Star, 2800; Champion and Provi- 
dence Mines, 2100 feet each, all in Nevada County; Kennedy, Jackson, Amador County, 
2100 feet; and several other mines of lesser depth. 

The geological formations in which the best mines are found, are numerous. Those 
of Nevada County are in diabase, divrite, slate, serpentine, and granite; those of El 
Dorado, Amador, Calaveras, Tuolumne, and Mariposa Counties, along the Mother Lode, 
are in slate and diabase, and in other portions of the State in porphyry and limestone. 
Usually a contact vein, one lying between two distinct formations, is the most permanent 
and well-defined. 

Usually the veins are free milling ores. An exception is noted, however, in some 
of the vems found in Shasta and the northern counties. These contain little silver, and are 
permeated with auriferous sulphurets of galena, iron, and copper pyrites. 

The Idaho Mine has produced $12,000,000; the Empire Mine $6,000,000, the North 
Star Mine $8,000,000, all of Nevada County; the Eureka Mine $10,000,000, the Keystone 



AGRICULTURAL POLICIES AND PRACTICES IN CALIFORNIA. 47 

$13,000,000, the Kennedy $10,000,000, all in Amador County. Others have produced in 
proportion to depth and the number of years worked. 

The Idaho Mine paid at one time $350,000 annually, and the Utica Mine, Calaveras 
County, $3,000,000 annually. The average production from these mines at the present 
time will probably be about fifty per cent. less. 

What is the average pay usually for miners and other skilled labor at the mines; also 
for ordinary or unskilled labor ? 

The pay of miners varies according to locality. In Nevada County the wages are 
three dollars a day for miners and skilled laborers; unskilled laborers are paid from two 
dollars to two dollars and fifty cents. This scale applies also to Sierra, Plumas, Shasta, 
and Trinity Counties. Along the Mother Lode in El Dorado, Amador, Calaveras, and 
Tuolumne skilled labor is paid two dollars and fifty cents a day, and unskilled labor two 
dollars a day. 




^.,,^'^:^^^tA.^-t^ 



AGRICULTURAL POLICIES AND PRACTICES IN CALIFORNIA. 
By Alfred Holman, Editor of the Pacific Rural Press. 



THE Eastern visitor who makes inquiry or observation concerning Californian farming 
is first of all impressed with the differences, both in policies and methods, between what 
he see and hears and that to which he has been accustomed in his Eastern home. At 
first he is often tempted to denounce Californian methods as slipshod and shiftless, and to 
proclaim the great advantage it would be if the more thrifty and Eastern style of farming 
were followed in California. If he comes to California to live, or if he looks more care- 
fully into local facts and conditions, he becomes convinced that his first impressions were 
in some respects erroneous, and that though California has indeed much to learn from 
older countries in agricultural thrift and system, neither Eastern nor European policies nor 
methods will exactly apply to Californian conditions, consequently cannot be blindly 
followed. To urge the agricultural spirit of the more progressive Eastern farmers as fit 
for emulation in California is often wise; to urge the adoption of the methods by which 
these men succeed at the East is as often unwise. Of course the same agricultural and 
economic principles apply everywhere in the world, but the manner of their local applica- 
tion widely differs. The mental attitude of the Eastern critic should therefore be one of 
careful inquiry, and upon the results of such inquiry should be based his suggestion. Too 
many visitors proceed to suggestion without inquiry or understanding, and their loud 
declamations are as sounding brass to the thinking Californian. 

The first fact which the Eastern agricultural visitor should recognize is, that California 
is essentially different in nature, tradition, and inheritance from the other States of the 
Union, and that all these differences affect agricultural policies. Differences based upon 
natural conditions and resources will endure and give rise to distinctive Californian farm- 
ing methods; differences resulting from tradition and inheritance will yield to progressive 
modifications, and will ultimately disappear and give place, no doubt, to policies involving 
greater prosperity and development to the State. Consequently the Eastern critip should 
be discriminating, and see to it that he does not shatter his lance in a tilt against invulner- 
able natural conditions, but maintains its point for the exposure of unthnft, fallacy, and 
hydrocephalism — all of which (though less abundant than formerly) still impede our agri- 
cultural progress. 

Probably the most striking differences between Californian and Eastern farm policies, 
and which receive the condemnation of visitors, are to be found in the following direc- 
tions : — 

(i) Ownership of land in large tracts. 



48 CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 

(2) Farming of large areas for a single product or a few products of the same class, 
or subdivision of tlie land into small holdings, to be directed into a single line of produce. 
This is what is called specialty farming. 

(3) Neglect of production of household supplies upon the farm, and consequent 
purchase of the same, frequently at prices based upon a long credit system. 

(4) The absence of home- like character and air to many Californian rural habita- 
tions, and the inferiority of barns and outbuildings. 

(5) The use of machinery and implements of great capacity and economy, in view 
of amount accomplished, but often operated with greater regard to quantity than quality 
in work or product. 

(6) The employment of policies and methods which seem dictated by speculative 
disposition, rather than by the cautious conservatism and calculation which pervades 
Eastern farming. 

(7) The thirst of the Californian for a great enterprise in wnatever line he pursues. 

(8) The adoption of methods of cultivation which seem to the Eastern observer 
shiftless and wasteful, and the neglect of provisions which he regards chief factors in thrift 
and success. 

An attempt will be made to comment briefly upon these indictments of Californian 
agriculture, in a spirit of candor, and to indicate to what extent they are well placed or 
due to misapprehension. 

The ownership of Californian lands in large tracts is in fact an inheritance irom a 
previous regime, and in part attributable to the early American conception of the adapta- 
bility of the lands themselves. During the Spanish supremacy, land was measured by 
leagues, not by acres; and aside from the Mission establishments, the territory was on a 
grazing, not an agricultural basis. During the first decade of American occupation, there 
was at least serious doubt as to whether the land had agricultural value, except as far as 
irrigation water could be distributed over it. When agriculture began with the growth of 
grain during the rainy season, land values were so low that immense areas could be easily 
acquired, and the grain product was zo large and high in value that in a year of generous 
rainfall a single crop might not only pay for the land, but enrich the owner besides. The 
same was true when the demands of the great mining population called for large quantities 
of beef and mutton, and when the wool values following the war spread innumerable sheep 
over the valleys and foothills. Land was hmitless; enterprising herd and flock owners 
were few. There was no reason whatever to entertain the old-fashioned policy of maximum 
production upon minimum area, and if anyone thought of it, he hastily concluded that the 
land and climate were not adapted to it. It was easier to get a township of land than to 
subdue an acre to a rational system of tillage, and so any man of capacity and enterprise 
became a land baron. Of course the conception of California's adaptabilities involved in 
the early policies of production was largely wrong, and is no longer defended. There 
has been for the last quarter of a century disintegration of the large holdings. Populous 
cities and towns, with their environment of small farms, now occupy some of the duke- 
doms which were acquired for a song, or a threat, or a promise; and it is possible now to 
buy good improved land in any quantity that one may desire at prices to suit any purse, 
or in a location to gratify any fancy — under the same rules that apply everywhere else in 
the world, viz. that proximity to thriving settlements constitutes an added value. 

But while there remains of the old large-ranch idea hardly anything worth mention- 
ing as an obstacle to acquisition by the new settler, it must be stated that until natural 
conditions are modified by the increase of the irrigated area, there are vast tracts of fertile 
valley land which can only be profitably handled as large farms. The prices of staple 
winter-growing products, for which these lands in their natural state are alone adapted, 
are so low that the most economical methods of production must be employed, and the 
profit of many acres must be combined to equal the expenditure even of a frugal house- 
hold. Aside from the valley plains, there are uplands of such peculiar character that only 
pasturage can be had from them, and in some cases no organisms, save those endowed 
with the foot of the goat or the wing of the bee, can gather the richness of the land. 

Let the critic of the large farms of California conclude, then, that California really 
does not now cherish the land baron policy, except as it survives from a phase of develop- 
ment which is rapidly passing, or where natural conditions demand that larg-e farmino- shall 



n:V 




BW^' 



h 



50 CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 

prevail until the conditions themselves are changed by enterprise and investment, which do 
not at present seem warranted. And it works no hardship whatever to the new comers 
that this is so. They can have a thousand small farms if they wish them, and each time 
they take a thousand they set in motion the agencies which will develop a thousand more. 

The specialty farming of California is, to a certain extent, open to impeachment by 
advocates of mixed farming, as is specialty farming elsewhere, and it has the same points 
in its support, and many more. The natural conditions of soil and climate in California 
are not only widely diverse, but they differ sharply within short distances. It is the part 
of wisdom to use each region, each locality, in fact each piece of land, for whatever of 
marketable produce it yields in the most profitable quantity and quality. Those who have 
attained success are those who have displayed the greatest acuteness in detecting local 
adaptations and promptness in employing them. Most of the failures result from pursuing 
some preconception of what a grower ought to do, without proper appreciation of the fact 
that local adaptations are the ruling factor. Wholly apart, then, from the disposition of 
the Californian to court reputation for greatness — which will be noted later — it is clearly 
true that our fruit regions, our dairy regions, our grain regions, etc. , are set apart as such 
by natural conditions specially favoring this or that line of production; and to preach 
diversification with a view to breaking down these natural distinctions and differentiations, 
is folly. To advise mixed farming in California simply because it is mixed, is a fallacy. 1 1 
is just as bad as advocating specialty farming as such. The honors are easy between the 
theoretical arguments on both sides, and neither strikes the foundation of things. But it 
is also true, that as we have regions for specialty, so we have regions for diversity, and the 
advocates of each policy can develop splendid demonstrations of their views if they are 
fortunate enough to select proper locations and conditions. Probably California can 
exhibit more successes and failures of all conceptions of farm policy than any other equal 
area of the earth's surface. 

But while specialty farming is strictly a rational proceeding in California, as above 
claimed, it is also true that there should be greater attention to diversification, wherever 
and to the extent that natural or arranged conditions will admit. During the last few 
years the small farmers who have produced their own home supplies and have had many 
products, even in small amounts, to sell or exchange, have had more comforts and escaped 
more hardships than those who have not had the disposition or the favoring natural con- 
ditions for diversified effort. There is, of course, a certain breadth of adaptation, even 
in regions of special physical features, and a man should put forth the utmost effort to 
employ the breadth as well as the depth of his endowment. The owner of irrigated or 
moist land in the interior, who has had alfalfa as well as fruit, has been the better for it; 
and the owner in coast valleys who has had sugar beets as well as beans or hay or milk 
products, has been profited. Everywhere, too where the farmer in any region has 
broadened his local conditions— as for instance, by the introduction of irrigation, even by 
well and windmill — has thus enabled himself to have an area of green growth in the dry 
seasori upon his grain or stock farm, and has commanded the opportunity for such 
diversification at least as favored his home supply of garden, dairy, and poultry products, 
and has been benefited thereby. So far then as the critic urges diversification within the 
hmits of natural or acquired conditions, he is wise; but let him avoid sweeping preach- 
ments on the subject. 

With reference to the character of Californian farm buildings and the dreary environ- 
ment of too many homes in this land of beauty, the plea must be made that this is a 
concomitant of the old regime of large ownership and the renting system, and is rapidly 
passing away. ^ Especially since the uprising of the fruit industry has the change been 
marked,_and with each succeeding year the visitor will find more to praise and less to 
deplore m the Californian rural homes. As for barns and outbuildings, there is no excuse, 
of course, for ugliness or lack of neatness; but the visitor should remember that the climate 
favors an all-the-year outdoor life for farm animals. Protection from storms and comfort 
from such degrees of mclemency as prevail here is humane and profitable as well, but we 
shall never need the commanding structures of wintry climates. According to the climatic 
conditions, the improvement of outbuildings on our farms has been as rapid and satis- 
factory as that of the rural dwelling. 



AGRICULTURAL POLICIES AND PRACTICES IN CALIFORNIA. 51 

Ever since the shipment of Eastern-made implements to CaHfornia began, extra sizes 
and strengths for the Californian trade have been the rule with the manufacturers. Wagons 
had larger boxes and stronger running gear, plows were set in gangs, reapers and headers 
had longer sickle bars, and threshing machmes were of colossal breadth and stature. 
The secret of it all was to secure the results of a maximum horse power with a minimum 
of human guidance. Nor could Eastern manufacturers sufficiently answer this demand in 
all lines. Local manufacturers of gang plows, harrows, cultivators, threshing machinery, 
and other implements and machines were established to meet the requirement, which was, 
that one man might cover the greatest breadth of plowing, harrowing, cultivating, and 
threshing possible with as many animals as he could control with rope or thong — it 
mattered not how many. Our great grain fields, level as the sea, favored the most pon- 
derous and complicated constructions which could be made effective. The acme in this 
direction was reached when the " combined harvester " made it possible for three or four 
men to use the strength of two or three dozen horses in cutting, threshing, cleaning, and 
sacking grain as fast as the great machine moved over the field. However strongly it may 
be asserted that all these capacious appliances secured quantity of work and of product at 
the cost of quality, it must still be insisted that they were all in accordance with the 
requirement of Californian conditions and the exigencies of the crop and the market, and 
without them California could not have recorded her grand surpluses for shipment. 
Though natural and trade conditions may be changed as the State develops, and produc- 
ing policies and methods may be modified to suit the new conditions, the old systems are 
true to the unchanged conditions, and are therefore to that extent sound and consistent. 

The speculative disposition of the old school of Californian farmers was a product of 
the times and environment in which they began. That the same disposition was carried 
over into the later period was unavoidable. That it has been almost squeezed out of the 
industry by the hard times of the last few years is fortunate for the agriculture of the 
State, though it has given sad experiences to many estimable people. There should be the 
kindest sympathy expressed for those who cherished the old misapprehension. Their 
example led others into losses, it is true, but they commended nothing to others which 
they did not themselves practice and suffer for. At present there is throughout California 
quite a strong caution and conservatism as the most exacting could desire, and there have 
been efforts for thrift and frugality as strenuous as people unused to such things could pos- 
sibly make. There is at present no occasion for denunciation of speculative disposition 
among Californian farmers; it has been fully expiated. 

As this must be conceded, it follows that much of the old yearning for " something 
great " in productive effort has departed also. There are, of course, clear producing and 
selling advantages in plans which yield certain volumes of produce, and in this line Cali- 
fornia will probably always have record. Our producers will have no greater difficulty in 
coming down to proper dimensions in this regard than older settled States may have in 
coming up to them, by better organization to secure uniform results for many small pro- 
ducers. As already shown, extravagant anticipations and other products from enlarged 
cranial development have largely passed from our agricultural horizon. 

The peculiar natural endowments of California make it necessary, as has been 
intimated, that this State must devise and cling to policies and practices which may in 
some cases seem ill advised to people of different environment. It is possible to fill a book 
with accounts of local practices in the various branches of agriculture. These are the 
secret of success and satisfaction here, and the newcomer must learn them. Above all 
things, he must first learn that it is impossible to expect any certain procedure to prevail in 
all parts, even of this single State. To indicate how striking are the differences in 
successful practices, three which are most freely condemned by Eastern critics may be 
cited. 

Let it be declared then, first, that it is not always wasteful to burn the straw in the 
field. It cannot be plowed into light soil under a scant rainfall, because it would be plowed 
out again, as bright as when it was covered in, and meantime it has rendered the land 
unproductive because it has increased the nonretentiveness of the soil, so that not enough 
moisture remained to mature a plant. It cannot be rotted in the stack, for lack of 
moisture. It cannot be fed to stock, because no man can afford to keep stock merely to 



52 CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 

burn straw in their lungs part of the year, enless he is near the pasture lands of the hills 
or the river bottoms, — and he may be twenty-five miles away from either. Consequently 
he burns the straw, saving the ash ingredients for the land, regretting the loss of the 
nitrogen which he cannot save, but rejoicing at the same time in the cremation of 
Hessian flies, joint worms, and grain aphis which he is well rid of Thus he clears his fields 
of what under his ruling conditions is only rubbish, and prepares to start again his great 
teams and tools in preparation for another crop. 

And now he commits the second great sin of the Eastern critic: He "merely 
scratches in his grain !" What could be clearer demonstration of the slipshod character 
of the large scale of work? Just look at the work of the fourteen-gang plow which an 
eight- mule team draws over the field, working at each crossing a strip wide enough for a 
county roadway and less than a finger's length in depth; or suppose he uses his wide 
three-section disk harrow or cultivator to make his seed bed ! Or, shade of the great 
Mecchi, suppose he makes no seed bed at all, but sows his seed on the surface and covers 
it with a harrow ! Or, pinnacle of absurdity, suppose he merely scatters a little more 
seed and lets the whole thing go for "volunteer!" How our Eastern friends have 
berated Californian farmers upon all this shiftlessness ! And yet it must be held that there 
are conditions under which all these practices are perfectly rational and profitable, and 
they are not to be either commended or condemned, except one fully knows and under- 
stands the conditions themselves. It would pass present limits to discuss them. 

But there is another point at which California's large-scale work is arraigned, and that 
is the manner of summer fallowing. In summer-rain countries the "bare fallow" (or land 
which is fallowed at intervals for one year without sowing of crop) has been shown to be 
of so little account that bare fallowing has been abandoned. The well-informed Eastern 
farmer can therefore hardly contain himself as he looks from the car window upon whole 
sections of land lying in bare fallow. Of course he must denounce the Californian grain 
grower as behind the times and shiftless. But the fact is, that the well-cultivated bare fallow 
is the sheet-anchor of success over the greater part of our grain area. At present there is 
no rotation open. It is impossible to grow a crop to reap and a green crop to plow in — ■ 
there is scant moisture for one crop. The action of the atmosphere on the bare fallow 
adds something to the soil by progressive disintegration of its insoluble ingredients, but the 
chief value of the summer fallow in California consists in giving one crop the rainfall of 
two seasons. The land is fitted to absorb all the rain that falls, the maintenance of a 
loose, clean surface prevents evaporation, the early sowing gives the plant a long growing 
season, and the result is that grain on summer fallow makes a crop, even though the rain- 
fall during the seasons of its growth is scant. Thus the bare fallow becomes the surety of 
a crop, and is strictly rational under Cahfornian conditions. 

These three strange practices of Californian grain growers could be matched by others 
equally strange to Eastern eyes from other branches of our agriculture. As stated at the 
beginning, we have to request from Eastern visitors the charity of silence about our strange 
ways, until they can carefully decide whether the reason for our peculiar agricultural 
manners is in our lands or in ourselves. 







Our "cup of gold," held by gentlest Spring 
To drink a welcome to those wandering 
In our fair land.— Even cloud and pine confess 
Their homage to the meadows' sunniness. 



DISTINCTIVE FEATURES OF CALIFORNIA HORTICULTURE. 

By E. J. WicKSON, Professor of Agricultural Practice in the University 

OF California. 



THE uniqueness of California is striking from every point of view of history, 
geography, cHmatography, sociology, and industry. In all these phases of nature 
and development there are peculiar local requirements, conditions, and adapta- 
tions, which affect the thought, behavior, and industrial methods of the people. 

It is not strange that persons who are literally dropped from the clouds into this 
peculiar country for the first time should find it difficult to understand and to appreciate 
the significance of all the unaccustomed things they see in the life and activities of Cali- 
fornians. It is hard for them to realize that things so unusual should be true and consistent. 
U they reflect, however, that what they see of mental attitude and manual method, in 
industrial affairs at least, is the accomplishment of the American mind, with all its 
resources of insight, acumen, and ingenuity brought to bear upon new materials and 
under novel natural conditions, they should at least have respect for results, though they 
may not at first understand them. 

It is an interesting fact, that it was in California first of all that the American mind 
came into contact with arid, semitropical conditions. It is surprising with what rapidity 
American insight reversed the Spanish conception of the value and adaptations of the 
country, and American energy and ingenuity made practical and profitable use of them. 
It is interesting, also, that the results thus accomplished are so widely significant that all 
the civilized, semitropical countries of the world are seeking to sit at the feet of Californian 
demonstrators of principle and method to catch hints for the higher development of their 
own lands. 

Although these reflections are true of all our agricultural achievements to an extent not 
generally known, it is especially the horticultural resources and practices of California that 
attract world-wide attention. They afford the sharpest contrasts when compared with the 
natural endowments and traditional methods of northern countries, and they furnish the most 
direct and practical suggestions for successful operation in all countries of similar climates 
in all parts of the world. For these reasons, during the last decade, California has been 
officially inspected by expert commissioners accredited from all the governments having 
possessions in arid, semitropical cHmates on all the continents of the Eastern Hemisphere, 
while the pomological and horticultural societies of the States east of the Rocky Moun- 
ta.ins have brought their membership e?z masse to inspect and investigate Cahfornian con- 
ditions and procedure. The result is, that California is at the present time the most eminent 
fruit region of the world. Californian methods are imitated everywhere, to a greater or less 
degree, as local conditions admit them, and fruit varieties of Californian origin have been 
disseminated to the uttermost parts of the earth. 

It is hopeless to expect to satisfactorily dismiss in a few paragraphs a subject of such 
breadth and with such a wealth of interesting details. The discussion must be resolutely 
restricted to a few of the most conspicuous phases, selected because they embody striking 
differences between Californian adaptations and methods, and those of nearly the whole 
country outside of our own State lines; for though the more northerly portions of our own 
coast have some characters resembling ours, the points of difference are greater than the 
resemblances, and there are unavoidable limitations to their enjoyment of our breadth of 
resources, and adaptations, and prohibitions to the use of much of our most valuable 
material. Nor will it be possible to mention the converse of the propositions which will be 
made. The reader must be trusted to know the conditions of his own locality, and to 
measure them for himself by means of the Californian standards which will be set up. 

In climatic conditions affecting horticulture, California is almost an epitome of the 
whole United States. We have high mountain valleys with wintry temperature-conditions. 



54 



CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 



where only hardy northern fruits can be grown; but even there we have no need of " iron- 
clad " varieties, because the temperature never falls to the point of tree-killing. On the 
other hand, we have hot valleys where the date palm confidently lifts its head to the fiery 
sunshine, while its feet are deeply planted in moist substrata beneath the sandy surface; 
but we cannot claim tropical conditions, because our dry air denies us many stricdy tropical 
growths. 

Intermediate between the cold and snow of the mountains and the heat and sand of 
the desert, we have every describable modification and gradation, and, naturally, it is 
between these extremes that our richest inheritance of horticultural adaptation lies. It is 
this infinite variety which gives us true title to the term semitropical.^ 

When this breadth and scope of our horticultural adaptations is realized, it becomes 
apparent that any enumeration of the fruits we can grow successfully would fill pages, and 
be, in fact, a catalogue of the known fruits of the world, except those which are strictly 
tropical. Wherever there is a northern or southern departure from the equator sufficient 
to bring energy to mankind, or where the same is accomplished by elevation upon tropical 
mountam side or plateau, there also are fruits which find a welcoming home in California, 
and are improved by the intelligent cultivation and selection which here prevail. On the 
other hand, it has been abundantly demonstrated, during recent years, by official awards at 
great exhibitions and by the sharp criteria of the markets as well, that the fruits of wintry 
regions are quite as much benefited by transfer to proper locations in California as are 
the people who come here to grow them. From north and south alike, then, California 
makes grand acquisitions, and includes within her area the adaptations of the whole 
country, with some which no other State possesses. 

But while this horticultural scope is claimed for the State as a whole, it is necessary to 
add that local adaptations within the State must be very narrowly drawn. Our greatest 
failures have followed ill choice of location for the purpose intended. Whenever certain 
Californian fruits have been ill spoken of, they have been produced in the wrong places, or 
by ill-advised methods. It is possible, then, to produce both poor and perfect fruit of a 
given kind. It may be said this can be done anywhere by the extremes of culture 
and neglect, but to this proposition it must be added that in California equally excellent 
methods and care will produce perfection in one place and the opposite in another. One 
who seeks to know California well must undertake to master both its horticultural greatness 
and littleness; and so closely are these associated, and so narrow the belts of special 
adaptations, that there are many counties which have a range of products nearly as great 
as the State itself 

It is hard for the stranger to realize this. It is difficult for him to believe that the 
terms "northern" and "southern" have almost no horticultural significance in California; 
that northern fruits reach perfection, under proper conditions, at the south, and vice versa; 
that some regions of greatest rainfall have to irrigate most frequently; that some of 
greatest heat have sharpest valley frosts; that some fruits can be successfully grown through 
a north and south distance of 500 miles, but cannot be successfully carried a few hundred 
feet of either less or greater elevation; that on the same parallel of latitude within a 
hundred miles of distance, from coast to mountain side, one can continuously gather market- 
able Bartlett pears for three months — not to mention the second crop, which is often 
of account on the same trees in the same season. 

Through the multitude of local observations, which seem perplexing and almost con- 
tradictory, it is possible to clearly discern certain general conditions of both nature and 
culture, which may be briefly advanced as characteristically and distinctively Californian. 
Of these, perhaps the most striking is the length of the growing season. 

Take, for instance, the peach in a good peach region. The bloom appears in Feb- 
ruary, followed by the grand foliage expanding to a leaf-size, marvelous to one unused to 
such peach leaves. The shoots of new growth rush out with vigor, promised by such a 
leaf, and yet the fruit below expands as though it would burst its skin in rapid enlarge- 
ment — and still it grows. The new shoot, apparently weary of its several feet of extension, 
stops for a rest, and then, reviving, starts out its laterals — while still below the peach is 
growing. The laterals push out a foot or more — all carrying large, fresh leaves. While 
these are in full vigor, the fruit ripens, after having a full half-year's joint work of root and 
foliage, if it is a late variety. Is it any wonder it weighs a pound ? But still the tree is 



DISTINCTIVE FEATURES OF CALIFORNIA HORTICULTURE. 55 

active. It forms its terminal buds, and then all along the new main shoots and their 
laterals are formed the leaf and blossom buds for the following year. Still the foliage holds 
green and active, if the moisture below be adequate, and the leaves seem loth to fall in the 
ninth month from the time of blooming. Is it any wonder Californian peaches are large 
and the trees require pruning and thinning to enable them to carry the weight produced 
in such a season of growth ? And what has been said of the peach is true of other trees, 
according to their nature and habits. The trees themselves are more eloquent of Cali- 
fornia's conditions for growth than descriptions or statistical tables can be made. 

But the quality of the light and heat, if the term is admissible, is a factor as well as 
their duration. The air, free, not alone from clouds, but from the insensible aqueous 
vapor which weakens sunshine in its effort to serve vegetation in a humid climate, has a 
clearness and brilliance from its aridity which makes each day of the long, growing season 
more than a day in other climates, and thus adds to the calendar length of the growing 
season. The surplus light and heat also act directly in the chemistry which proceeds in 
the tissues of the plant, and we have not only size, but quality, color, aroma, — everything 
which makes the perfect fruit precious and beautiful beyond words. 

It is true that for commercial purposes it is not possible to allow this process to go 
too far, for its later effects are higher sweetness, accompanied by such juiciness that the 
fruit cannot endure transportation. But go to the tree to apply the only test which can be 
fairly put to a juicy fruit, and the demonstration of the service of clear, unobstructed sun- 
shine through an adequate period is complete. But if this cannot be done, place the 
judgment upon the mature peach carefully sun-dried and intelligently cooked, or upon the 
ripe peach skillfully canned, and the distinctive adaptations of California for fruit production 
will display themselves. 

But there are other agencies involved in the perfection of fruit than intensity and 
duration of heat and light. Without adequate moisture in the soil, the air which we have 
credited with such benign power in carrying heat and light for perfection of fruit would 
transmit the same as agencies for the destruction of the tree which bears it. If this moisture 
come from rainfall, it descends at the time of the year when the tree is least active, conse- 
quently is least retarded by a clouded sky and moisture-laden air, and least affected by 
atmospheric disturbances. Strong storm winds find the tree with reefed sails, and able to 
endure pressure which would tear it to pieces if they came upon its grand spread of foliage 
on branches heavy with fruit. It is a priceless horticultural endowment that no tornado 
can pierce our protecting mountain-barriers, and that it is exceedingly rare that our local 
winds disturb the confident swaying of the branches and leaf movement beyond the activity 
which ministers to the sap flow. And if the adequate moisture is not from rainstorm, but 
by irrigation, the same facts remain, for the water reaches the tree without interrupting its 
aerial activity. Temperature is maintained, light is unobstructed, and the tree is refreshed 
with moisture without the chill and darkness which favor fungoid parasites. Of all the 
ways by which moisture could come to soils supporting fruit tree or vine, the natural by its 
time, and the artificial by its method, endow California with the best. 

At this point the skill of man enters as the ruling factor. The Creator planted no 
fruit trees upon the valleys where now the greatest crops are borne. If they should be 
planted, trusting to the winter rains or to the summer overflow of the rivers, these supplies 
would avail them nothing. Adam is as necessary to California as he was to that older 
Eden in that other arid, semitropical country in Asia Minor. In nearly all valley and foot- 
hill situations diligent cultivation is the price of life and productiveness in the tree, and 
pruning is the secret of its strength and symmetry. Hence has arisen the reputation of 
California in these important lines of orchard and vineyard work, and within the last few 
years the example of California has led the older States to the beginning of a new era in 
their own horticulture and in their treatment of so-called "hoed crops" as well. The 
basic principle is the stirred surface, to check evaporation, to promote retention of moisture 
in the lower strata, and the deeper rooting of plants to enjoy it. California did not dis- 
cover the principle. It was inscribed in books before California was thought of, but Cali- 
fornia found, first, that the survival of the plant depended upon it; and second, that 
survival on that basis meant the highest excellence. In humid climates the question of 
survival is not involved, but the superior excellence of the cultivated orchard is becoming 



56 CALIFORIVIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 

so clear that the old cow- pasture orchard is being remanded to its proper place among the 
picturesque ruins of a former time. California, in achieving her own success, has brought 
the older States up to date in rational horticultural practice. 

There remains still another distinctive character among California's horticultural 
adaptations. Equable temperatures, unequaled light and heat, adequate and timely 
moisture, the highest human insight in location and skill in maintenance — all these would 
fail of success were not the ultimate foundation of horticulture, the soil itself, of commen- 
surate excellence. Thus, indeed, it is. Our fruit soils in all parts of the State are char- 
acteristically deep, rich, and mellow. Systematic examination and comparison with the 
soils of humid climates have shown exactly and indisputably that an arid climate favors 
retention of plant food in the soil, and that we have in our deep surface strata a wealth of 
fertility which the rains of a humid climate would have been for centuries carrying to the 
ocean. 

Both the depth and the richness are cofactors. In our best valley situations the soil 
is practically the same at a depth of many feet as it is at the surface. The roots of fruit 
trees and vines proceed almost indefinitely downward, finding moisture and food all 
along their course. Even light sandy soils, which in humid climates would be almost 
barren, may be found in CaHfornia abounding in fertility, and the finer loams are propor- 
tionally better. Of course, the almost infinite diversity of Californian conditions extends 
to soils as to other natural materials, and there is not depth nor richness everywhere, nor 
can the newcomer always judge of their presence by the criteria he has applied in other 
lands, but the trees and their fruits will give him unmistakable evidence. 

The standing horticultural injunction of other lands, to put your trees on the best soils 
you have, and then tuck them in closely beneath blankets of the best prepared fertilizers, 
is not a good general rule in California. It would be mistaken kindness in many places. 
We really have soils too rich for fruit trees and vines, unless one is content to wait for 
years later than the usual early-bearing time, until the tree has passed its youth, in riotous 
living and astounding wood-growth. There are wide seas of land which is in midsummer 
brown and bare, but conceals beneath its forbidding surface such depths and richness that 
a quarter of a century of constant fruit cropping would not perceptibly sap its strength. 
Possibly within gunshot, however, are other lands which could hardly bring trees to satis- 
factory bearing age. Here, too, CaHfornia has rewards for the highest human skill and 
knowledge, and disappointment for ignorance and carelessness. 

In these few paragraphs it has been freely intimated, and the widest observation 
among our people will confirm the declaration, that the swift advance and unparalleled 
achievements of Californian horticulture are due not more to the characteristic fitness of 
her natural resources of climate and soil than to her endowment of human skill, knowl- 
edge, and enterprise. The fruit-growers of California, as a class, are the most intelligent 
and most highly-educated group of agricultural producers in the world. They have come 
from all civilized lands to take up residence and investment here, and the ability to come 
so far on such intent is prima facie evidence of the possession of personal quality and 
resources of distinguishing character. They have come bearing the fruits of successful 
enlistment in all the professions and callings of mankind, and their trained minds and 
quickened powers of observation have constituted the impelling force in California' s won- 
derful progress during the last two decades. They have pushed our fruit colony hamlets 
into cities; they have extended and enriched our school system; they are the most 
earnest promoters and patrons of higher education; they have no fear that their sons and 
daughters will be too highly educated for the intelligent pursuit of horticulture; they are 
developing the commercial features of our fruit industries; they are constantly improving 
our culture methods; they are actively appreciative of the application of the sciences to 
their pursuit, and they are very qiiick to detect pretension and fallacy. 

The gift of the fruit interest, then, to California is not alone the wealth which can be 
calculated as the value of outward shipments; not alone the wonderful accretions on the 
county assessment rolls of improved property. The greatest gain to the State is in the 
line of higher citizenship, and, in fact, it is this acquisition which has rendered all the 
other gains possible. 



^-^' 




PYRAMID OP OLIVE OIL — STATE BOARD OF TRADE EXHIBIT. 



OLIVE CULTURE. 
By Elwood Cooper, of Santa Barbara. 



THE Franciscan Fathers planted the first olive trees in California. These trees were 
planted at every Mission, and the fruit harvested was converted into oil, a large 
quantity of which was used in the religious services of the church. It was also 
consumed as a food product. Until 1868 the culture of the olive was confined to the 
Missions, and even in those orchards no effort was made to enlarge or extend the cultiva- 
tion of this fruit, destined, in my opinion, to become the basis of California's leading 
industry. 

Early in April of 1868 I visited Santa Barbara and saw the Mission olive orchard. 
Even at that season, late as it was, the trees were hanging full of fruit, and I was so 
impressed by the beauty and apparent productiveness of the orchard, that two years later, 
when I had decided to make California my home, I began at once to prepare for olive 
growing. 

I believe the time will come when all the table-lands, hills, and mountain slopes will 
be planted with the olive. Many other fruits will be rooted out to give it place. Every 
available acre will be required for this industry, and no substance will enter more largely 
into medicinal preparations than olive oil, and none be more common as a food product in 
daily consumption. 

Olive planting is inexpensive, because trees can be raised from slips and cuttings, 
which grow rapidly if properly manipulated. If grown from cuttings, the plants will pro- 
duce fruit the fourth year. Trees can also be grown from seeds, and it is claimed that 
from this planting the best trees and fruit are produced. By this method, however, it 
takes about twice as long to get the first fruits, with the additional expense of either 
budding or grafting. 

My experience with the olive indicates that it will thrive on every well-drained soil. 
On my ranch the trees have been planted in black adobe, on sandy loam, subsoil brick 
clay, on deep bottom land, on sandy and stony hillsides, on adobe hillsides, on clay soil, 
and on red lands. All are thriving, and those planted on the higher lands are apparently 
the more thrifty; the highest elevation, however, is not over 400 feet above the sea level, 
and is distant from the sea less than three miles. The tree will grow in a dry climate 
where no other fruits could be successful, and will live through an extremely dry year; 
but it could not be expected to give much fruit in such years, nor is it known just how long 
thereafter the tree will recover from this lack of moisture. I have not found irrigation 
essential or at all necessary to the production of the best olives. 

It is believed that the olive will thrive in nearly every part of the State. On the 
coast it is claimed that the tree will grow more rapidly and bear more abundantly; and 
while this is conceded, inland growers claim an equal advantage from the circurnstance 
that insect pests and fungoid diseases are less prevalent. 

Opinions are at variance regarding the variety of olive to plant for profit. Formerly 
the Mission olive was the only variety planted. My own planting was from cuttings of 
the Missions of Santa Barbara, San Fernando, and San Diego, and from the Tajiguas 
Ranch. In recent years many different varieties have been brought from Europe. These 
imported varieties have been planted and are fruiting, so that the question of their relative 
values will soon be determined by the experience of olive growers in California. 

In the selection of varieties, a rapid-growing tree, easily shaped, is a very important 
feature, as it gives good bearing capacity. Some varieties grow unshapely, and are with 
difficulty kept from breaking. Different locations may require different varieties, but 
above all other considerations is the quality of oil produced. The varieties that will make 
the best oil should, in all cases, be selected, provided the quantity is a fair average to a 
given acreage planted. The quantity and quality of the oil in the fruit gives value, also, 
to the pickles. 

58 



CITRUS FRUIT CULTURE IN CALIFORNIA. 59 

Making olive oil is a simple process. The quality will depend upon the care that may- 
be exercised, from the picking of the fruit through every stage of the manufacture, until it 
is tightly corked in the botde. The berries must not be allowed to stand in heaps, or in 
sacks, or, in fact, in any sort of package, long enough to heat; otherwise the oil will 
become musty or rancid. 

The quantity of fruit that a well-grown olive tree, from twelve to fifteen years old, will 
produce in a good year, is from 200 to 250 pounds. The results in the oil product from 
these trees should be eight and a half pounds of berries to the large bottle of oil. 

The increased demand for ripe olive pickles has given encouragement to the olive 
growers. The importance of this fruit in the form of pickles, as a food, is growing in 
favor, and if proper care is taken to place them on the market well cured and in sound 
condition, the consumption will increase more rapidly than the supply, and give a much 
better result than if made into oil. As long as adulteration is permitted, or as long as con- 
sumers can be deceived by the adulterations and substitutes of oils that can be produced at 
so much less cost, the competition will be such that the pure olive oil cannot be sold at a 
profit to the grower. It is hoped, however, that the true character of these substitutions 
and the danger of using them will be clearly demonstrated to the public, as well as the 
great value of the pure olive oil as a food and medicine. 




.5fc 

CITRUS FRUIT CULTURE IN CALIFORNIA. 
By I. N. HoAG, OF Redlands. 



THE culture of the orange and the lemon in California became a recognized industry 
between i860 and 1870. Previous to that time these trees had been planted, for the 
greater part, merely as handsome ornamental adjuncts of gardens and parks. Now 
these fruits are grown in every county along the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, from the 
Mexican line to Red Bluff, in Tehama County, a distance of more than 700 miles. This 
strip of country is called the thermal belt, and varies in width from a few miles to thirty 
or more. The area of this region contains about 1,500,000 acres of citrus fruit lands, in a 
climate adapted to the culture of this product. 

Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties are credited with producing the first fruit 
of this character for commercial purposes. The counties shipping citrus fruits at the 
present time, in greater or less quantities, are, San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino, 
Santa Barbara, Ventura, Orange, Los Angeles, Tulare, Fresno, Sacramento, Placer, 
Yuba, Butte, and Tehama. California's average output in oranges and lemons for ship- 
ment is about 12,000 carloads, or 3,600,000 boxes. There are no trees in the State old 
enough to be in full bearing, and this condition will not ensue for fifteen to twenty years. 
The aggregate of orange trees planted in orchard form is about 8,000,000, and of lemons 
about 1,500,000. One third of these are bearing more or less, averaging a box a year 
from each tree; one third are just coming into bearing, and one third are not bearing at all. 
The citrus belt is on upland, or, as it is termed in California, mesa land. The altitude 
ranges from 300 to 1800 feet above sea level. The soil is largely decomposed granite, and 
much of it is mixed with red or black clay. Very little is river-bottom land. 

To produce this fruit irrigation is necessary. In some sections large storage reservoirs 
have been built high in the mountains, and from these water is drawn as needed to 
supply the distributing reservoirs on the foothills. As they gain experience orchardists are 
learning that better cultivation is an effective substitute for water, and produces better 
quality of fruit in larger quantities. 



6o CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 

If the rich alluvial soils of the river bottoms could be transferred to the elevated 
slopes of the foothills, they would make the best citrus land. They cannot be utilized for 
that purpose in the low levels, because of liability to killing frosts, and because of lack of 
good drainage. Citrus fruit trees require a deep soil. They will not do well if the subsoil 
is a hardpan on gravel beds. 

The mean summer temperature of the citrus-growing region of California is sixty- 
eight degrees at San Diego and eighty-eight degrees at Red Bluff. The mean winter 
temperature is fifty-four degrees at San Diego and forty-five degrees at Red Bluff. 
Neither oranges nor lemons can be profitably grown in a climate where the temperature 
falls much below the freezing point and remains there more than a few hours at a time. 

The mild and even climate of the Pacific Coast is due to the prevailing ocean winds 
from the southwest in winter and from the northwest in summer. Along the thermal belt, 
in a normal condition of the atmosphere, two calms occur every twenty-four hours — one 
about ten o'clock in the morning and the other at ten o'clock in the evening. During the 
morning calm the sun warms the atmosphere until it begins to rise, and the cooler air of 
the ocean moves slowly inland. The warmer air, high above, also moves inland, and 
finally rests against the slopes of the mountains. In winter this warm atmosphere presses 
the cooler air of the desert back beyond the mountains. This condition, and the motion 
of the atmosphere, continues until the sun begins to set. Then contrary influences begin 
to operate. The inland movement is checked, and the second calm ensues. The cool 
stratum of air that has rested on the foothills recedes. The upper strata of heated air is 
also drawn back, and a light wind blows seaward all night, with a temperature somewhat 
lower than that which moved inland during the day. At sunrise, before the returning 
tempered air has passed the thermal belt, and when the temperature is about to be lowered 
by the frosty air of the mountain tops, solar radiation has arrested the downward tendency, 
and the first calm of another day has set in. 

In those citrus sections most highly improved the land holdings average about ten 
acres to the family. An orchard well cared for will pay running expenses the fifth year 
after planting, and will be a profitable investment in the seventh year. Thenceforward the 
orchard will increase in product and profit until the trees are fifty years old, and they may 
be in full bearing at one hundred years. 

The cost of a profitable orchard depends upon many circumstances. In Redlands 
and some other sections of Southern California, where land has always been held at a high 
figure, and where water is distributed through underground pipes to the most elevated 
portion of every orchard, and where every other appointment is necessarily on an expen- 
sive scale, the average cost of orchards at seven years is from $750 to $1000 an acre. In 
localities where land and water are still cheap, where water is delivered direct from rivers 
through open ditches, as in the upper San Joaquin Valley, the cost of orchards at seven 
years will not average over $500 an acre. In either case the average income will not be less 
than ten per cent, on the investment, per annum; and may be much more under favorable 
conditions. 

^ There are various opinions as to the best varieties of citrus fruits. The standard 
varieties of lemons are the Lisbon, the Eureka, and the Villa Franca, and general prefer- 
ence is given in the order named. The standard varieties of oranges are the Washington 
Navel, the St. Michael, the Valencia Late, the Bloods, the Mediterranean Sweets, and the 
Seedling. On account of the superior quality of the Navels grown in this State, California 
has a practical monopoly of this favorite in the markets. The St. Michael, however, is 
one of the best oranges in the world. The Valencia Late is also a good orange, and' as 
both ripen late, and can be kept on the tree until May or June without injury, "cir can be 
kept in cold storage until August or September in prime condition, they offer a safe 
opportunity for certain profits. The Bloods, both Maltese and Ruby, are great favorites 
as specialties, and may be depended upon for good returns. The same results may be 
expected from the Tangierines. 

In California the orange, lemon, and grape fruit are, as a rule, propagated by budding 
on the orange stock. Trees propagated in this way have very few natural diseases, per- 
haps less than any other kind of fruit trees. Such diseases as do appear are generally 
caused by bad management— the trees may have been watered too much or toolittle; or 
the drainage may have been inadequate. Citrus fruit trees will rapidly deteriorate by 
reason of neglect or bad treatment, and they will as rapidly respond to good care. 



CITRUS FRUIT CULTURE IN CALIFORNIA. 6i 

Citrus trees are liable to be attacked by scale insects, especially in damp or foggy 
climates. The most dangerous scale is the white cushiony and the black scale. The 
Vedalia cardinalis — a lady bug from Australia — has almost exterminated the white scale in 
California, and growers no longer regard that pest with apprehension. The Rhizobius ven- 
tralis, another Australian lady bug, is proving very efficient against the black and other 
scales. 

Perhaps the most interesting and important feature of discussion regarding citrus fruits 
in California at the present time is the question of protection from injurious competition 
by reason of the importation of foreign fruits into this country in such quantities and of 
such inferior grades and condition as to demoralize the market for our own production. 

The fact that tariff duties have in the past been imposed on citrus fruits by the box 
and in bulk, while on the other fruits these duties have been laid by the pound, seems to 
have blinded growers, dealers, and legislators to the great discrimination in favor of foreign 
growers and importers of these particular fruits. Past legislation in this regard has been a 
cordial invitation to Spain, Italy, Sicily, the West Indies, and Mexico to extend their 
plantations, and usurp and hold our markets as against our own growers and dealers. The 
rapidity with which these plantations have been multiplied and the rapid increase of importa- 
tions during the past few years, indicate that this invitation has been accepted and 
acted upon. 

The strong protests made by these foreign growers and importers, and by their 
governments, show that they have come to regard the privilege they have thus enjoyed, 
through our default, as a right which they think we are bound to respect. When, how- 
ever, it was pointed out what an insignificant figure ten cents a cubic foot under the 
McKinley Bill and eight cents a cubic foot under the Wilson Bill amounted to when the 
contents of the cubic foot was reduced to pounds, and the duty was reduced in like propor- 
tion, namely: two sevenths of g. cent a pound under the former bill, and a trifle over two 
eighths of a cent a pound under the latter bill, the inadequacy of this duty as a revenue 
measure even was readily seen and acknowledged by all. 

The Ways and Means Committee promptly changed the schedule and reported three 
quarters of a cent a pound. This is not enough to make a good revenue rate, but it is 
much better than the old rate. As a measure of justice to the citrus growers of California, 
the schedule should fix a rate of at least one cent a pound on this product. 

The best interests of the consumers of these fruits on the other side of the continent 
will also be served by encouraging the development of this great industry in California, for 
these consumers will, as a consequence, receive more extensive orders from the people of 
this State for the products of Eastern shops and factories. 

Therefore, aside from immediate individual advantage, is it not the patriotic duty of 
every citizen of the United States to uphold and strengthen the industries and the pros- 
perity of his own country in preference to those of any other ? 




J> 



CALIFORNIA. 

A sleeping beauty, hammock-swung 

Beside the sunset sea. 
And dowered with riches, wheat, and oil. 

Vineyard and orange tree; 
Her hand, her heart to that fair prince 

Whose genius shall unfold, 
With rarest art, her treasured tales 

Of life, and love, and gold. 

— Clarence Urnty. 



THE BEET SUGAR INDUSTRY. 

By Claus Spreckels. 



EXACTLY 150 years ago the first experiments in extracting sugar from beetroots 
were made by a German scientist named Margraff, who prophesied that Europe 
would find in the beet the basis of a new industry. The chemist in his laboratory 
was the pioneer of the manufacturer, and the immense production of beet sugar in Europe, 
at the present day, attests the correctness of Margraff' s forecast. When this discovery 
was first made the beet contained only about five per cent, of sugar; to-day, in California, 
it contains fifteen per cent. 

No sooner did man discover the latent value in the plant than the plant rewarded 
him by doubling and then trebling the cherished characteristic. The beets themselves 
became sugar makers, and repaid abundantly whatever labor was expended upon them. 

The great importance of this growing industry to California will be clearly apparent 
from a survey of the facts. 

Ten years ago it was in its infancy. The three factories now in operation at Watson- 
ville, Chino, and Alvarado produced during last season 35,000 tons of sugar — a quantity 
sufficient to supply half the requirements of the Pacific Coast. Two other factories are 
now in course of construction, one at Alamitos, another at Salinas. When these are com- 
pleted the supply will exceed 100,000 tons. Large as this quantity is, it is small com- 
pared with the possible production in California — as there are 750,000 acres perfectly 
adapted to the raising of sugar beets. Allowing for proper rotation of crops, about 
200,000 acres would be available each season, capable of producing 2,500,000 tons of 
beets, and 350,000 tons of sugar. 

Last year the United States imported over $90,000,000 worth of sugar. 

The successful development of the beet-sugar industry in various sections of the 
country has demonstrated, beyond dispute, the ability of the nation to produce all the 
sugar it needs. The same process will be repeated on this continent that has taken place 
in Europe — the consumption of cane sugar will become less and less, as the development 
of the beet industry enlarges. The entire annual production of cane sugar throughout 
the world is now less than 3,000,000 ions, whereas Europe produces nearly 5,000,000 tons 
of beet sugar. Thus the sugar trade has been almost entirely revolutionized in the old 
world, and it soon will be in the new. 

As the annual consumption in the United States is about 2,000,000 tons, there is 
abundant scope for the development of the home industries. 

Many sections of the country are well adapted for the raising of sugar beets, but 
California surpasses all other States in possessing a combination of all the conditions suita- 
ble to the industry — whether as regards soil or climate. The length of the season enables 
the beets to ripen and the crop to be harvested earlier than elsewhere, an advantage both 
to the farmer and the manufacturer. The mildness of the winters on our coast renders it 
unnecessary to store the beets in silos, an item of expense that must be incurred wherever 
the winters are severe. 

The best proof of the superiority of California in beet raising is to be found in the 
beet itself. Comparative statistics show that the proportion of saccharine is greater in 
the beets grown here than in any other locahty, whether in America or Europe. The 
plant itself becomes a more active worker, and extracts more sugar from Californian soil 
and sunshine than it does elsewhere. 

Taking the actual results of an entire season's operation at Chino, the average yield 
of raw sugar exceeded 15 per cent, of the weight of beets supplied to the factory, whereas 
in most other States the yield rarely exceeds 13 per cent. 

This State needs men who are willing to work on farms, and there is no better field 
than in the raising of sugar beets. Given the necessary care in cultivation, there is an 
assured market for all the beets that may be raised in the vicinity of a sugar factory. 
Contracts are made which guarantee the payment of $4.00 per ton for beets delivered at 
the factory. 

Land adapted to sugar-beet growing will average fourteen or fifteen tons to the acre, 
from which the farmer will realize about $60. The cost varies with varying conditions 
and localities, but will in general range from $30 to $40 per acre. The farnier will thus 



THE BEET SUGAR INDUSTRY. 



63 



net from $20 to $30 per acre on his crop. No grain crop can be compared with the sugar 
beet for results. A single example will suffice to show this. A particular tract of 225 
acres planted to barley returned $12.75 per acre, but when planted to beets netted $59.33. 

Last season's operations at Watsonville show an average of $56. 24 per acre, gross 
returns, on the whole crop of over 150,000 tons. The average tons raised to the acre 
were slightly in excess of fourteen, and the price paid $4 per ton. The sugar produced 
amounted to nearly 20,000 tons. 

When the factory at Salinas is completed next year, we will be able to utilize the pro- 
duct of 30,000 acres. This area under beet cultivation will entail au expense of $22 per 
acre for labor and seed, aggregating $660,000. Sown in grain, the outlay would be under 
$160,000. The factory will have a capacity for crushing 3000 tons of beets and turning 
out 500 tons of sugar daily. This is equivalent to a production of 60,000 tons of sugar 
for the working season of five months. When in full operation the daily disbursements 
will amount to $12,000 for beets, and $5,000 for labor and" operating expenses — a total 
outlay for the season of fully $2,000,000. 

No better field for colonization was ever offered than California offers through her 
beet-sugar industry. For many years to come its expansion is assured — the market is 
constant and reliable — the profits are good. One thing is necessary — union. The coopera- 
tion of the manufacturer and the agriculturist is essential to success, and the heartier the 
cooperation the greater the success. The factory is the nucleus of the community, — the 
beet fields and the various allied industries are grouped around it. The farmer is not 
entirely dependent upon his crop of beets, but that crop is certain of an adequate return. 
Parties of colonists would, therefore, find one element of success permanently present as 
soon as the acreage planted to beets was large enough to warrant the erection of a factory. 
This, capital is ready to do whenever the opportunity presents itself 

Plans are now being carried out in this State, whereby large numbers of unemployed 
men will be enabled to earn a comfortable living, and if industrious acquire homes of their 



The success that has thus far attended this effort to aid those who were unable to aid 
themselves, abundantly proves the certainty of success which awaits those who come to 
this State, possessing such means as will enable them to take up land in beet-raising districts, 
and who are prepared to contribute their intelligent labor to the development of the 
industry. 

Below will be found a statement of the cost of raising, and profits derived from a 
beet farm located near San Juan, California. 



EXPENSES. 

Rent of 238 acres at I7.00 per acre 

First plowing l34o 00 

Second plowing 396 65 

Cultivating and harrowing 500 00 

Sowing — labor 85 00 \ 

Use of drill 28 80 / 

Seed, 2830 pounds at ten cents 

Thinning, 1 100 days at $1.00 

Cultivating and weed cutting, one man and two horses, thirty days at $3.00 

Plowing out, one man and team, ninety-five days at fe.oo 

Topping and loading into wagons, 1335.3 days at $1.00 ■ • 

Hauling three miles to switch, at fifty cents per ton 

Freight on railroad to factory 

Cost of knives and hoes 

Interest 

Total expenses • 

INCOME. 

4,451.275 tons of beets, at I4.00 

Sale of beet tops 

Total income » ,. 

Net profit 



Total Cost. 



1,666 00 
1,236 65 

113 80 

283 00 

1,100 00 

90 00 

285 00 

1,335 30 

2,225 50 

2,225 50 

20 00 

300 00 



$10,880 75 



Si7,8i7 22 
200 00 



$18,017 22 



$ 7,136 47 



Cost 
per 
acre. 



g7 00 
5 19 



49 

I 19 

4 62 
38 

I 19 

5 61 
9 35 
9 35 

09 
I 26 



72 



84 



|75 70 



Cost 
per 
ton. 



37 
28 

03 
06 

25 
02 
06 
30 
50 
50 

07 



2 44 



4 00 
04 



$ 4 04 



I I 60 



64 CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE, 

Cost of labor done by farmers personally is estimated at current rate of wages. 
Nature of soil. — Deep, sandy loam, on banks of San Benito River, not subject to 
overflow. 

Previous crops. — Pasture for seven years. 

First plowing. — In November, six inches deep. 

Second plowing. — In February and March, ten inches deep. * 

Commenced sowing. — May i, 1896. 

Finished sowing. — June 3, 1896. 

Commenced harvest. — September 8, 1896. 

Finished harvest. — January 19, 1897. 

Yield of beets. — 18.70 tons per acre. 

Rainfall for 1895-96. — 22.05 inches. 

Average pounds of seed sown per acre. — 10. 

Number of acres re-sown. — 50. 

Fertilizers used. — None. 

In view of the new era that is opening for California, may we not look for such 
genuine prosperity in field, in farm, and in factory, that all eyes will be turned to this 
western edge of the world ? 

California is strong enough to stand erect, and does not need to make her obeisance 
toward the East, although she holds out a friendly hand across the Sierra. Confident 
that her welfare is based upon the freedom of her people, her public-spirited citizens will 
watch over it, and will seek to strengthen every industry that contributes to its preser- 
vation. 

And whether a man's material stake in his country be large or small, — whether he 
has built up great industries or filled a simple task, — the results will be permanent and 
beneficent if each can look upon his work in the spirit shown in Millet's picture of " The 
Angelus," where the laborers rest from their toil while the church bell peals. 



^&l(fuot^ O^^^^^^i 




THE RAISIN PRODUCT. 

By William Forsyth. 



THE State Board of Trade has requested at my hands a brief article upon raisin 
growmg. The appeal is made to me in this relation because I am in the raisin- 
growing business, and have been since its inception in the raisin-growino- district 
of Fresno. I am admonished by the committee of the Board to write simply and" plainly 
and from the mental attitude of one who may suppose himself to be answering questions 
asked by an Eastern visitor who desires to know something of how raisins are grown and 
what profit may be expected from the industry. ' 

_ I submit the following, not as a painstaking, profound-thinking essay on raisin ctow- 
mg, but as one wherem tme writing has been subordinated to plain speakincr I have 
avoided too great detail, and have simply sought to supply the inquiring visito? with een- 
eral mformation,_ rather than exact data of the industry. I have, however endeavored to 
treat the matter in a manner commensurate with its scope and importance 

First a historic note: Raisins date far back of the Christian era in the world's his- 
tory; but here, we of Ca ifornia present the marvel. Rai.in growing was not sugo-ested 
as an experiment earlier than 1876, and at that time no one foresaw die grand importance 
of that industry to this locality, nor what its future would be. It was in that year that 
experimental vineyards were planted, with the view of raisin growing but it is fair to sav 
that It was nearly ten years later before the importance of the industry dawned upon the 
Caliiornian growers. 



THE RAISIN PRODUCT. 



65 



In 1883 I became identified with this interest. I had a vineyard planted, and a 
splendid piece of ' summer fallow" was the result. Next year it was planted again, and 
alter a bit of ''experience" I succeeded in producing from 160 acres. At that time, 
1886, enough Fresno goods were in the market to call attention to California as a raisin- 
producing district, and to-day there is enough to command the attention of the commerce 
of the world. 

Raisin vines, of which the Muscat is chief, are grown from cuttings, and when planted 
in the vineyard at the grower's notion of from 6x6 to i2x 12 feet, and pruned down to a 
stump about fifteen inches in height the first year, and kept there ever after, will produce 
in four years, and thereafter the crop increases, both in quantity and quality. I safely say 
this for the reason that, while there may not be an increase in pounds, there is in older 
vines to be considered the fact that the skin grows thinner and the seeds smaller. 

At four years, in Fresno, you may say that you have a vineyard ready to produce a 
reasonable crop. How are raisins made? 

' 'Colonel, ' ' said a very intelligent 
business man from the East who vis- 
ited my vineyard, " how much does 
your sugar cost you in making rai- 
sins ? " 

I confess that for once in my life 
I was nonplussed. " Sugar," said I, 
"what do you mean?" He ex- 
plained, and I found that he labored 
under the mistaken idea that raisins 
were a confection, the same as candied 
fruits. 

I was at the trouble to explain 
to him that when Byron, enumerating 
the sweet things of earth, said, ' 'Sweet 
is the vintage that reels to earth, pur- 
ple and gushing," he was but fore- 
casting a Fresno raisin vintage; and 
that all the sugar in raisins was but 
the natural sugar in the grape, which 
in first crop ranges from twenty-three 
to twenty-six per cent, by a saccha- 
rometer test of the " must." I found 
that my statements were not accepted 
as fact, but fact it is. 

How do we make raisins ? Let 
me briefly tell you. The vineyard 
grown, the crop ripened, the clusters 
are clipped from the vines, laid upon 
trays, usually 2x3 feet, made of 
"shakes" split from the pine trees — 
clapboards they call them East, — and 
dried in the sun. How long? Ah, 
there 's the rub! The drying is the 
issue, but we understand it well. It 
would take pages to describe the 
minutia. Enough to say that the 
method is simple, inexpensive, and 
that the goods are now graded to 
meet the demands of the market of 
the world. More: California to-day 
produces as good a raisin as is made 
on earth, and for cleanliness nothing 
in the world compares with it. I 
say this, challenging its refutation. 




66 CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 

" Where can the raisin be grown ? " I hesitate not to say that, because of the natural 
elements of climate, soil, and irrigation systems in vogue, Fresno represents over three 
fourths of the industry, and its possibilities in the future. 

As evidence of this I am permitted to use the statement of the shipments over the 
Southern Pacific Railroad, which includes only Eastern shipments for 1895 and 1896. 

In 1895 the shipments of raisins and dried grapes amounted to 83,924,142 pounds. 
In 1896 the shipments of raisins amounted to 61,609,040 pounds. This does not include 
local shipments, but only those to eastern points. 

Beginning in 1876, with no shipments, and then taking into consideration what has 
been accomplished in twenty years, the result challenges belief We admit it; come and 
see us, and we will show you the proof. 

Much apprehension has been manifested of late that grape seeds taken into the stomach 
may be the cause of appendicitis. Fresno meets all criticism, and to-day the grape seed 
is not only eliminated from the human equation of death by extraction in the seeding 
machines introduced last year, but the housewife is saved a deal of trouble in making 
puddings; and it is ever safe to say that the American product, handled by American hands, 
with due regard to American demands for cleanliness, has now placed the cheapest product 
of food before the people in the best shape and cleanest form. 

I have avoided in the foregoing criticism of products. I have avoided all claims for 
superiority. I simply ask of visitors to the coast that they will visit this great raisin, wine, 
and fruit-producing center during their stay here, accept our hospitality, courtesies, and 
entertainment, to the end that they may learn more fully of this great industry, and be 
assured that my statements are but mildly drawn. 

The Fresno district has about 35,000 acres of raisin vineyard, which is at least three 
fourths of the output of the State. The average yield is about one ton to the acre. 



// " 'yn^<^ 



j^ 



APRIL IN CALIFORNIA. 



An April, fairer than the Atlantic June, 

Whose calendar of perfect days was kept 

By daily blossoming of some new flower. 

The fields, whose carpets now were silken white, 

Next week were orange-velvet, next sea-blue. 

It was as if some central fire of bloom. 

From which, in other climes, a random root 

Is now and then shot up, here had burst forth 

And overflowed the fields and set the land 

Aflame with flowers. I watched them, day by day, 

How at the dawn they wake, and open wide 

Their little petal-windows, — how they turn 

Their slender necks to follow round the sun, 

And how the passion they express all day. 

In burning color, steals forth with the dew. 

All night in odor. —E. R. Sill. 



TRANSPORTATION IN CALIFORNIA. 



67 




TRANSPORTATION IN CALIFORNIA. 
By W. G. Curtis. 



IT is a popular misconception that transportation in California has been monopolized in 
the interests of railroad corporations, in a manner detrimental to the interests of the 
State, and that this supposed monopoly of transportation facilities has prevented the 
extension of cultivation and has in other ways been harmful. This opinion seems to be most 
widely and strongly expressed in the larger towns located upon tide water, and may, to 
some extent, be accounted for from the fact that California has, as compared with other 
parts of the United States, exceptional facilities for transportation by water; that, to a large 
extent, its actual necessities for transportation are served by water carriers, and con- 
sequently the development of rail transportation, both transcontinental and local, has 
tended to disturb commercial conditions established with reference to lines of water trans- 
port only. 

It is proposed in this article to present certain facts tendmg to show the truth of the 
matter, and to indicate the circumstances which prevent the monopolization of transporta- 
tion facilities to such an extent that unjust or extortionate rates can be charged by carriers. 
In other words, to suggest that any serious investigation into the details of the question will 
show that, in point of fact, the producers are well and reasonably served by the railways, 
that extortion in rates is prevented by permanently established competition of carriers by 
water, upon waterways never obstructed by ice, or (excepting for comparatively short 
sections on the upper portions of the rivers) interrupted by low water, and that, where the 
currents of trade have been interrupted, deflected, or reversed by the extension of rail lines, 
such changes are a necessary and irrevocable result of railroad construction, and cannot be 
made otherwise by any policy, either hostile or friendly, of the railway owners. 

The settlement and development of California by the American people may be said to 
have commenced in 1849, immediately after the discovery of gold. At that time (although 
railroad building commenced in 1855) and, practically speaking, for the succeeding twenty 
years, up to the completion of the pioneer overland railroad in 1869, the transportation 
interests of the State were served entirely by water carriers. 

California, though often called a "one railroad" State, is far from being so. It has 
twenty-nine operating railroad companies. On June 30, 1896, the aggregate mileage of 
the lines operated by the Southern Pacific Company was 3101.61 miles; the aggregate 
mileage of railroads operated independently of, or in competition with, the Southern 
Pacific Company, was 1959.59 miles. Total railroad mileage in the State, 5061.20 miles. 



68 CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 

The mileage of railroads operated in the State, from the commencement of railway 
construction to date, is indicated in the following table: — 

Miles Mii.es 

Year. Operated. Year. Operated. 

1855 8.00 1880 2,195.00 

i860 23.00 1885 3.045-05 

1865 214.00 1890 4,328.03 

1870 925-00 1895 4,757-55 

1875 1,503.00 1896 (June 30th) 5,061.20 

Starting from the year 1870, which may be fairly taken as the commencement of the 
railroad era in California, it is to be noted that the increase in railroad mileage from 1870 
to 1880 was 137 per cent., as compared with an increase in the population of 54 per cent. 
From 1880 to 1890 the increase in railway mileage was 100 per cent., as against an 
increase in the population of 40 percent.; and for the two decades, 1870 to 1890, the 
increase in railroad mileage was 367 per cent., while the increase in population was 116 
per cent. It will be noted that the increase in railroad construction has been at a rate 
considerably greater than the rate of increase in population, and the people of California 
now have, in addition to their exceptional water transportation facilities, 3.73 miles of 
railroad to each one thousand inhabitants, as against 2.65 miles of railroad in the remainder 
of the United States. While this is true, from the view point of the railroad companies, it 
is, to a large extent, compensated for by the greater productive capacity of the people of 
California, as compared with the remainder of those in the United States. This proposition 
may be illustrated by the following table, based upon the United States Census Reports 
for 1890: — 

RAILWAY MILEAGE, LAND AREA, VALUES, AND PRODUCTIONS TO EACH ONE 

THOUSAND INHABITANTS. 

Remainder of 
California. United States. 

Miles of railroad 3.73 2.65 

Land area — acres 84,000 36,000 

Improved land in farms — acres 10,100 5,600 

Valuation of all property $2,097,000 $1,018 000 

Valuation of farm products $72,000 $39,000 

Valuation output manufactures $177,000 $149,000 

Valuation imports and exports $70,000 $25,000 

A mineral production of: — 

Gold and silver $11,580 $1,390 

Quicksilver $990 ....'. 

Asphaitum fiio $1 

Stone (building, etc.) $1,760 $8^0 

Mineral waters $210 $20 

An agricultural product of: — 

Wheat, bushels 34,000 7,000 

Barley, bushels 14,000 1,000 

Hay, tons • . . . . 2,660 840 

Beans, bushels 590 40 

Hops, pounds 5^420 530 

Wine, gallons 12,110 160 

Raisins, pounds 22,720 

Beet sugar, pounds 29^040 " * ' 160 

Wool, pounds 19,940 2,720 

Honey, pounds 3^250 980 

As might be expected from this, the number of tons of freight carried by railroads, 
per mile of line, is slowly increasing. This is illustrated by the accompanying diagram, 
which shows, for the Southern Pacific fines. Pacific System (of which about three fifths are 
located within the State of California), an increase in the tons carried one mile, per mile 
of road, from 209,487 tons in 1895, to 293,871 tons in 1896. This diagram also illustrates 
the fact that railroad rates have decreased faster than warranted by the increasing tonnao-e, 
thus resulting in a loss of revenue. For example, it will be noted from the diagram that 
in 1885 the average rate per ton per mile was 2.044 cents, and the tons carried one mile 
per mile of line, 209,487, equal to a gross freight earning per mile of road of $4,282.00; 
while in 1896, the rate per ton per mile was 1.23 cents, and the tons carried one mile, per 
mile of road, 293,871, being equivalent to an earning per mile of road of $3,614.00. This 
loss in revenue is indicated graphically by the diagram. 














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Average Receipts per Ton per Mile — Cents 







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70 CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 

It follows from these figures that, if the rate of 1885 had applied on the tonnage of 
1896, the earnings per mile of road would have been $6,007.00, or 65 per cent, more than 
was actually earned. To put this another way: the actual earning in 1896 was $2,392.00 
per mile of road less than it would have been at the rates of 1885; and this difference oi 
$2,392.00 per mile represents an aggregate reduction in freight charges for 3,101 miles 
of $7,419,000.00. In other words, the freight earnings of this one system of roads in 
California for 1896 were $7,419,000.00 less than they would have been had the rates ol 
1885 applied. 

At present the net earnings per mile arising from railroad operation in this State are 
about ten per cent, less than the average figures for all railroads in the United States; and 
all things considered, the rates charged by California carriers compare favorably with 
charges for similar service elsewhere. In this connection it has been estimated by the 
United States Department of Agriculture that, for the various agricultural products the 
prices of which are largely dependent upon the cost of transportation to different markets, 
and which are also, to a greater or less extent, fixed by prices in foreign markets, irre- 
spective of prices and demands local to California, the value upon the farms is greater in 
California than for the general average of the United States, by the following percentages: 

Corn 25 per cent. Oats 36 per cent 

Wheat 16 " " Barley 2 " " 

Rye 20 " " Hay 11 " 

Facilities for the transportation of persons and property can be conveniently measured 
as to their adequacy for industrial necessities by instituting comparisons between localities, 
or between different periods of time in the same locality, material differences in local 
circumstances and conditions being given fair consideration. 

When setting in contrast the transportation conditions in California and in other 
countries, particularly other portions of the United States, this State's physical geography, 
also the density and distribution of its population, is essential to a clear comprehension of 
the matter. The salient facts in this connection are: — 

1. The coast line of the State along the Pacific Ocean extends from about 32° 32' to 
42° North Latitude, or almost exactly five eighths of the Pacific Coast line, and equal in 
extent to very nearly one half of the Atlantic Coast line of the United States. The length 
of the shore line between the northerly and southerly boundaries is almost exactly one 
thousand miles. The average width of the State is about two hundred miles. The general 
trend of the larger valleys is in a northerly and southerly direction, and the easterly portion 
of the State is mountainous, the highest peaks running from 14,000 to 15,000 feet in 
altitude. 

2. The total area of land surface is 100,207,000 acres, of which 39,500,000 acres 
or, in round numbers, forty per cent., may be classed as arable. Out of this total of arable 
land, 25,000,000 acres are estimated to lie within the great central valley basin (San 
Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys), which is something over four hundred miles in length. 

3. Seventy- five per cent, of the arable land and ninety per cent, of the present 
population are located between the Pacific shore line and a line parallel with and 1 20 miles 
east of it. About fifty per cent, of the arable land and about seventy-five per cent, of 
the present population are located within twenty-five miles of navigable waterways. 

4. The mildness of the Pacific Ocean permits the operation of many small ports and 
open roadsteads along its shores. In fact, excepting in the stormiest portions of the 
winter months, it is possible for coasting vessels to receive and discharge cargo at almost 
any point where timber lands and other arable lands abut upon the shore. Coastwise, 
therefore, the ocean may be regarded as the trunk line for transportation local to California. 

On the coast of California, south of San Francisco, there are sixty-four, and north of 
San Francisco, fifty-six established ports and landings, making a total for the California 
coast of one hundred and twenty ports, equal, on an average, to one landing for every 
eight and one third miles of coast line. In addition to this, there are one hundred and 
thirty- five regular landings upon the bays and rivers. 

The fleet of vessels registered with home ports in California, at various periods, are 
as follows: — 

Year. Number of Vessels. Gross Tonnage. 

18S0 ....... 884 ........... 202,114 

^^^9 957 314227 

i"97 o . 1,095 (estimated) 355 500 



TRANSPORTATION IN CALIFORNIA. 71 

The miles covered in trips and voyages of these vessels in 1889 was 8,239,608; in 
1896 (estimated), 9,400,000. 

Of the payments for transportation local to California, about forty-five per cent, of 
the total is paid to water carriers, and fifty-five per cent, to the railroad companies. 

FACILITIES FOR TRANSPORTATION TO AND FROM OTHER STATES AND COUNTRIES. 

Here again California's facilities are excellent. Its connections with foreign countries 
are largely by sea, the entrances and clearances of vessels (both sailing and steam) at the 
various United States Customs Districts in CaUfornia, for the year ending June 30, 1896, 
bound to or from foreign ports, was: — 

Vessels. Tonnage. 

Entered 1,091 1,359.447 

Cleared 1,025 1,262,407 

In addition to this movement, which is understood to include vessels carrying com- 
modities between the Atlantic and Pacific ports of the United States, via the Isthmus of 
Panama, clipper ships also ply between such ports via Cape Horn, from two to four 
departing from each coast monthly. 

Overland transportation is offered between California and the eastern portions of the 
United States via the following transcontinental lines: Canadian Pacific Railway; Northern 
Pacific Railroad and connections; Great Northern Railway and connections; Union Pacific 
and connections, via Pordand, Oregon; Central Pacific Railroad and connections, via 
Ogden, Utah; Adantic and Pacific Railroad and connections, via Albuquerque, N. M., 
and Southern Pacific and connections, via El Paso. The agencies of these various routes 
are established in the principal towns, and their representatives, actively seeking patronage 
all over the State, are equipped to contract for the movement of freight and passengers 
from points of origin to destination. The people of California thus command the situa- 
tion. One railroad failing to please, its patrons can give their business to another, and all 
being unsatisfactory, shippers can any time resume old tactics and ship by sea. 

The natural conditions are so much against an obstructive policy on the part of the 
railroads, that cHmate, fertility of soil, and other things equal, those counties located in the 
great central valley of the State, which are practically out of reach of transportation by 
water, and which for twenty-five years have been served by transportation facilities by one 
railroad company (the Southern Pacific Company), have in their growth and development 
not only kept pace, but in all things have progressed faster than the other great valley 
counties, including those which enjoy, throughout their area, all the advantages conferred 
by free competition between land and water carriers. In fact, so prosperous have these 
counties become that San Francisco capitalists have selected this region as the most promis- 
ing for profitable investments in railway transportation facilities, and are now engaged in 
building new lines through these counties, to compete with the pioneer railway carriers. 
The practical effect of the construction of these new lines is to complete the system of com- 
petitive carriage, either rail vs. rail, or water vs. rail, throughout the State; and, to sum up, 
California has exceptional advantages, both for local transportation and for the interchange 
of commodities with other States in the Union and with other countries in the world. The 
competitive conditions limiting the powers of its transportation companies are firmly and 
permanently established. Its transportation facilities are not only adequate to, but are in 
advance of, the commercial and industrial necessities of the people. 




Yellow the gjold from the mountain mines, 

Golden the evening west. 
But the golden flower that far outshines, 

The Spring wears on her breast. 



THE CANNED FRUIT INDUSTRY. 

By J. H. Flickinger. 



THERE is no reason why the canned fruits of California should not take precedence 
of all others preserved by this process, and command, as the standard of superiority, 
the best markets of the world. My own experience demonstrates this possibility. 
It is an assertion capable of statistical proof that California contains more acres especially 
adapted to the production of citrus and deciduous fruits than the whole of Europe, and the 
results of cultivation have shown conclusively that Californian fruits of these varieties are in 
every way superior to those grown in the South of France, Portugal, Sicily, and along the 
Mediterranean. 

Judicious pruning is an important factor in the production of fruit of a quality 
specially fitted for canning purposes. It is necessary to cut off at least nine tenths of the 
fruit-bearing wood, and to thin the blossoms materially. In CaUfornia this pruning pro- 
cess progresses from November ist to about March ist. The first fruit thinned for 
canning purposes is the apricot, beginning about May ist. On a limb four feet long, with 
three or five lateral branches, there is ordinarily, under conditions of unrestricted growth, 
between lOO and 150 apricots. When properly thinned and cut back, that limb will pro- 
duce not more than twenty apricots, but these are perfect in quality, superior in size, and 
are classed as " extras." This product results in the finest canned fruit in the world. 

Apricots thus treated measure not less than two and a half inches in diameter. The 
ordinary fruit of this class measures only one and a half inches. 

The season for thinning the peach follows that of the apricot, beginning about May 
loth and continuing until the 15th or 20th. Peaches are thinned as closely as the apricot, 
or perhaps more closely, as this fruit requires extraordinary attention to insure uniform 
growth, from a minimum diameter of three inches to any size compatible with the strength 
and vitality of the tree. The season for picking the aprico^ begins on the 20th of June, 
and the first peaches are picked on July 15th. From that date until October ist the differ- 
ent varieties of peaches are received at the canneries. 

The cherry is the first fruit to ripen in this State. The season begins on May ist, but 
there are exceptional instances of earlier production, as at Vacaville, where cherry pick- 
ing begins two weeks before the date mentioned. This fruit requires the mildest and the 
most uniform climate of all the deciduous products of California. It grows best in an 
alluvial soil thoroughly cultivated, and the fruit must be subjected at no period to a 
climate warmer than ninety degrees. In consequence the cherry crop is confined to a few 
favored localities, generally near the bay region; the fruit does not thrive in the interior of 
the State where the summer heat exceeds 100 degrees. 

After the cherry crop has been gathered, it is absolutely necessary to irrigate the trees 
moderately to replenish the exhausted moisture and prevent the tops from perishing. 

The soil of orchards producing fruit for canneries should be cultivated to a depth of 
not less than six to eight inches, and this cultivation should be repeated six or eight times 
during the season. The surface of the soil should be alluvial in character, and capable of 
holding moisture by capillary attraction, thus blanketing the roots of the trees and 
maintaining an equable temperature. 

All orchards bearing extra fancy fruits for canning purposes should be irrigated or 
even flooded during the months of December, January, and February, but not later than 
March. It is a safe rule to put on not less than twenty inches of water for fruit of this 
class. This moisture, added to the rainfall, will penetrate good alluvial orchard soil to a 
depth of eight or ten feet. This irrigation cannot be applied effectively to adobe soil or 
lands that are crusted with hardpan to a depth of three or five feet. The alluvium must 
be at least fifteen feet, and may reach to forty feet. I have frequently found roots of trees in 
these alluvial deposits at a depth from fifteen to twenty feet. And the best experience shows 
that this mode of cultivation will not succeed with shallow and poor lands. 

The best fruits for canning are cherries (black and white), apricots, peaches, pears, 
and plums. The best apricot is the large, delicious Moorpark, which cannot be excelled 



THE CANNED FRUIT INDUSTRY. 



73 



anywhere in the world for flavor and size. The Hemskirk is one ol the most prolific 
bearers in California, and for canning purposes is second only to the Moorpark. There are 
other varieties, but they must all be graded inferior to those mentioned. 

Of the peaches, the first as regards canning quality is the Crawford (a freestone) ; the 
lemon chng is also./'ar excellence, the canning peach of California; and the CaHfornia cling 
the Nichols cling, the orange cling, and other varieties of the cling are suitable for canning' 
Of the late peaches (September 25th to October loth), the Salway and the Henrietta 
chng, if permitted to ripen fully in a climate not excessive, make a high-flavored 
product. 

The Bartlett pear is the only fruit of this variety that produces an extra fine quality of 
canned goods, and all other varieties have been displaced for this superb fruit. 
„ ..^^^ ^^^ Pl""^ properly canned and processed makes the most delicious product of the 
Cahfornian orchard. Other varieties that are preferred for canning are the Jeff'ersonian 
gage and the green gage. 

All fruit, to make extra superior table fruit, must be picked full-flavored, as it would be 
eaten out of hand. It must not be transported too far, and it must be processed imme- 
diately to retain its flavor and aroma. Fruit shipped ten to fifty or 100 miles, especially 
peaches and apricots, must be picked green, and in this condition it cannot be converted 
into first-class goods. Canneries should be adjacent to the orchards, so that the fruit can 
be picked, delivered, and processed on the same day. This is the only method by which 
fancy extra table fruit can be produced. It would be to the general interest of Cahfornian 
packers if they would pack their goods for delivery in good condition, as required by the 
canner. If more attention to this detail were exercised, the consumption of extra fine 
canned goods would more than double in every market of the country in the near future, 
and the profit to all concerned would be correspondingly greater and more certain. The 
consumer who has once tasted fruit of the best quality, never returns to the green-packed 
fruits ordinarily produced by the canneries. 

I am convinced that the best results will be ultimately attained in this industry on this 
coast, and that the fame and quality of Cahfornian canned fruits will be enhanced as we 
come to understand and take advantage of the natural conditions that have contributed to 
make California the best fruit-raising region on the face of the earth. 




In Alpine valleys, they who watch for dawn 

Look never to the east; but fix their eyes 

On loftier mountain-peaks of snow, which rise 

To west or south. — Helen Hunt Jackson. 



CALIFORNIA DAIRYING. 

By Saml. E. Watson. 



local demands 
present time. 



IT is difficult to make a concrete statement which will give any comprehensive idea of 
dairying in particular localities of the State. The industry began in the mountain 
valleys adjacent to the mining regions, and the American cows tied behind the wagons 
of the gold-seekers in 1849 and succeeding years were the foundation for our present 
dairy stock. The mountainous and isolated valleys of the Sierra constitute an important 

division of dairying for 
at the 
and the 
climatic conditions in 
these places range nearer 
those of the East than 
elsewhere in the State, 
yet varying with differ- 
ent altitudes and expos- 
ures. 

The main grazing 
lands which have been 
given over to dairying 
for the past thirty years 
are those immediately 
facing the ocean, begin- 
ning a hundred miles 
north of San Francisco, 
on narrow plateaus in 
front of the redwood 
belt, and extend- 
ing along the 
hills contigu- 
ous to San 
Francisco 
Bay and 
south to 
Pt. Con- 
ception, 
compris- 
ing a dis- 
trict of 
coast line 
400 miles 
in length. 
The cli- 
mate of 
this region is peculiarly favorable for aairying, and the temperature seldom runs below 
forty degrees in winter or above eighty in the summer season, and with the first rains in 
October grass and herbage spring up and continue luxuriantly until grazed down and the 
June sun cures the feed upon the ground, after which the best that yet remains is relied 
upon to carry the stock through, with supplementary foods, until the fall rains again 
cover these hills with green. The prevalent summer fogs aid in extending the grass 
season after the winter rains are over, and a considerable amount of barley, wheat, and 
oats are grown and cut for hay. This is fed during the fall months, and in some instances 
dairymen who have proper regard for their herds feed bran and roots also. A large 




CALIFORNIA DAIRYING. 75 

number of foreign owners of dairy cattle allow their animals to become emaciated and 
unfit fur profitable service when the rains are delayed, rather than buy food to carry 
them through. The great need of the State is for a class of Eastern dairymen, who have 
been accustomed to feeding upon a rational basis, and are responsive to modern teaching 
of right methods. 

These hill districts were very profitable to the men that own immense tracts and lease 
in subdivisions for the long period preceding the nineties, but the great increase in outside 
production of dairy products in recent years has brought values so low that it has been 
found difficult to compete, and rents and values of these lands have decreased immensely. 
The long and close cropping of them has also resulted in a depreciation of their real grazing 
qualities, and the better native herbage has given place largely to growths which the cattle 
do not touch. These unfavorable species are thus allowed to reproduce in an increasing 
ratio, while those which are desirable do not have the chance to mature and re-seed. ^ The 
land is adapted only to grazing, and the problem which presents itself is that of allowing it 
to recruit itself. Possibly this may be done by the substitution of sheep, to eat away all 
the growth equally, and also by the improvement in the cattle. At present it takes about 
seven acres to sustain a cow, which produces but 150 pounds of butter annually. If the 
producing value of every cow is doubled and the number halved, and an intelligent 
system of feeding condensed foods and millstuffs be adopted, this land will again become 
profitable. 

Contrasted with these hill dairy regions is one of very limited extent, that for ideal 
dairy conditions probably exceeds any territory of the same size in the world. This is in 
the river valleys of Humboldt County and in similar valleys of the upper coast. The most 
notable of these is the Eel River Valley, where upwards of 12,000 cows are kept upon less 
than 20,000 acres, on a compact body of sedimentary land near the mouth of this large 
stream. On either hand the hills are densely covered with redwoods, which supply cheap 
fencing, barns, and fuel for the creameries of the valley, which make all the milk product 
up into butter for the San Francisco market. The season is later than in the southern 
counties, and this butter comes into the market in June, when that from the lower country 
begins to decrease. It usually causes a very low price for the product of the coast, which 
is taken advantage of for packing purposes. After this demand is satisfied prices again 
recover, and the later Humboldt product brings fair prices. 

Secondary to the Eel River district is the region bordering Humboldt Bay. The 
largest body of land is known as the Areata bottoms, and this is constandy increased by 
reclamation of tide lands from the bay. In these communities there is a preponderance of 
Americans and Scandinavians, and for the Eastern dairyman, desiring to locate among a 
class of people to which he has been accustomed, this is undoubtedly the country which 
would satisfy him. The methods of dairying are almost the same as in the Eastern States, 
and it is almost the only district where red and white clovers, timothy, rye grass, etc., are 
specially cultivated for dairy feed. The rainfall is equal to that of the States of the 
Mississippi Valley, and almost every characteristic of Eastern life is reproduced here. The 
main difference is that of climate, and the prevailing aspect of this northern coast county is 
that of perpetual green, though snow is frequent upon the higher ranges of hills and 
mountains. There is a cordiality among the people of Humboldt which is very inviting to 
the stranger accustomed to the indifference of less isolated places. 

A development of unknown proportions is taking place in the dairy industry of the 
State, and while there are some great obstacles to contend with, more especially climatic, 
this development may be of the greatest importance in increasing the milk production and 
fixing values. If alfalfa will reduce the cost of producing milk materially, and thereby 
force our hill dairymen into better methods, such as I have spoken of, a great impetus will 
be given the industry in the State, for a good export trade in evaporated milk, cheese, and 
butter would be insured in direct competition with regions where the climate is less favorable 
for a long season. Alfalfa requires a warm climate and irrigation for a large yield, and m 
the Los Angeles region the conditions are ideal. Dairying there has assumed great 
prominence in many of the lowland districts bordering on the ocean and in interior valleys 
with an abundant water supply. 

The great Sacramento Valley, paralleling the old coast hill dairies the entire 400 miles, 
and divided from it by the Coast Range, is rapidly being turned into an alfalfa district, and 



76 



CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 



stocked with cows for its conversion into milk. The difficulties that the creameries of the 
valley have to contend with are the excessive heat and unfavorable shipping facilities, but 
the use of refrigerating machines is growing, and the local demand in several of the larger 
towns and in the mining territory is equalizing the conditions, so that no serious obstacle to 
this great development is likely to be met. 

California has an advantage in its long seasons for grazing and growth of feed-stuffs, 
and consequent cheaper production of milk, over Eastern dairy districts. Its situation is 
favorable for any possible export trade, and with improvement of methods throughout its 
300 creameries and nearly 200 cheese factories, the industry will be one of very great 



miportance. 



Jc^fCAJcOo^, 



^ 



POULTRY FARMING. 
By J. A. Finch. 







T 



^HE buisness of raising chickens 
and eggs has been con^idered 
hitherto of small importance 
by the Californian farmer. In con- 
sequence the people of this State 
have been compelled to import over 
$2,500,000 worth of this product 
annually from the Eastern States. 
Regarded in view of the fact that 
the climate of California is especially 
adapted to successful prosecution of 
this industry, it would seem that 
the Californian farmer has not yet 
learned the lesson of the hard times. 
He has not yet grasped the fact, 
palpable enough to the consumer 
compelled to economize even his 
food supply, that the surest profits 
in this period of financial stringency 
emanate from those industries that 
cater to the cheap necessities of the 
people. 

Within a radius of seventy-five 
miles of San Francisco are many 
locations admirably adapted to the 
raising of poultry. It would entail 
but little difficulty to find suitable 
tracts of from five to fifteen acres in 
the foothills, warmly sheltered, with 
ample supply of running water, near 
lines of railroad, within easy reach of 
the best market in the State. Profitable returns from this market are assured to any 
industrious, intelligent poultry raiser by the circumstance that he has a margin of over 
$2,000,000 of imported product to meet before he begins to fear an excess of supply. 
Moreover, it is a business that is virtually free from competition. The egg trust is not yet 
hatched, and the hen syndicate is not even incubating. 

The farmer of California might get a hint of his own possible advantage in the 
premises by studying the methods of those who are supplying this State with egg° and 



FLORA OF CALIFORNIA. 77 

poultry from the Eastern States. Informed of the profitable results to the poultry farmers 
of the East, the Californian might be encouraged to try the experiment on his own acres. 
Last year the ^^^ and poultry production of the United States reached the enormous 
amount of $500,000,000. This was greater than the return from cotton, wheat, and cattle, 
and in spite of the vast production, this country imported during 1896, from Canada, Nor- 
way, Sweden, Belgium, and other foreign lands, more than 60,000,000 dozen eggs. In 
the States of Kansas, Iowa, and Nebraska, during the past three years, the poultry has 
furnished the farmer with the necessaries of life. It is estimated that corn costing twelve 
cents a bushel will feed and mature a hen which, when sold, will average thirty cents, or 
at the rate of thirty cents a bushel for the corn, to say nothing of the income from the sale 
of the eggs. 

The last census shows that in Ohio there were 13,000,000 fowls, 500,000 turkeys, 
270,000 geese, and 409,000 ducks. In Missouri there were 22,000,000 fowls, 1,000,000 
turkeys, 849,000 geese, and 627,000 ducks. It is conceded by poultry raisers that a fowl 
will pay seventy-five cents net profit annually. The immense profits of the business in 
Ohio and Missouri may be easily computed, and there is no reason why the same results 
may not be attained to the extent of the local market in this State. 

In the New England States large capital is invested in the business of poultry rais- 
ing. The most improved methods are employed, and some of the plants represent invest- 
ments of from $5000 to $100,000. It must be remembered in this connection that this 
business is successfully conducted in a section of the country where, during six months of 
the year, the climate is rigorously adverse to this production. In California the climate 
throughout the year is not only favorable to profitable production, but it is also conducive 
to the best results attainable in any country in the world. All that is required additional 
is ordinary judgment, close attention, and a determination to succeed. 




FLORA OF CALIFORNIA. 
By Emory E. Smith. 



" Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet 
I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." 

IN exploring the flora of the Pacific Slope, both natural and acclimated, one enters a 
field of unchallenged delight — a veritable wonderland, where nature scorns brevity or 
restriction. From the fir-clad peaks of the Sierra to Palm Valley in the South, the 
shifting sea sands at the West and the somber forests of the North, Flora is regnant, the 
year round, changing her court from mountain to plain, and her vestments from brown to 
green and gold and blue, at the season's behest. 

So vast is California and so diversified in contour, that the investigator finds, in truth, 
a never-ending springtime and a congenial place for nearly every plant and tree that grows 
upon the earth. 

While the great mountains, with their storm-swept crests, are wrapt in silent white- 
ness, the warm rains are clothing the hills and valleys of the southern counties with green 
and gold, vivifying all nature. Quickly the green mantle spreads northward; then up the 
mountain sides this glorious spring chases the melting snows, leaving a trail of beauty in 
its wake. While far down in the valleys the harvest has been gathered and the hills have 



78 CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 

been browned by midsummer heat, we pluck spring's daintiest floral offerings from the 
shadow of the snow banks upon Mt. Shasta's brow. 

California's flora can only be summarized in so brief a space as this, but a glimpse 
here and there of its beauties may inspire the reader to observe more closely the wonderful 
possibihties of nature in this favored country. 

Beginning with the alkali plains which seem so dreary and desolate to the casual 
traveler, the plant lover finds much of interest. There are the giant cacti, lifting their 
straight' stiff bodies high into the air, crowned in season with snowy flowers; thousands of 
acres of opuntias, their thick, prickly leaves studded with gaudy yellow and purple blossoms; 
stately Yucca brevifolia, with curious, tufted branches, and the more humble but still beauti- 
ful Yucca Whipplei, with the great spikes of creamy flowers. For a few brief days, when 
the ground is moist, these desert wastes are bright with annuals, which ripen and sow 
their see. Is and disappear as completely as if they had never existed. Even a chaste, white 
lily rises from the bare sand, as if to show that nature's precious gifts are not all bestowed 
upon the goodly lands. 

On the sand dunes by the sea we find a rich flora battling for a foothold in the uncer- 
tain earth. Great, white and yellow lupins, dainty blue iris, sea pinks, strawberries, 
brodice.is, sand apples, echeverias, asters, alliums, and a host of other plants and shrubs 
carpet the sand hills, making common cause with the willows and scrub oaks. 

Ac Monterey the pine forest sweeps down to the water's edge, but for the most part 
the immediate coast fine is quite devoid of forest. 

In the low coast mountains the flora is rich beyond brief mention. This is the home 
of the m.ijestic redwood, beneath whose lofty, somber branches in the subdued light grow 
the tnlliums, yellow iris, oxalis, white violets, and thrifty ferns. The live oaks are luxu- 
riant, and the great, gaunt madronos lift their glossy heads. Manzanitas, with their 
smooth but knoited and twisted stems, and exquisite flowers, choke the forest spaces; lilacs 
( Ceanothus) in lavender, white, and blue, lend softness to the greenery. Christmas berries 
{Htromobs arbuti folia) give gaiety in the winter, and honeysuckles, clematis, wild peas, 
and roses fight for position and light. 

In localities great clumps of tawny-blossomed azaleas lend their charm. Caly- 
canthus, dogwoods, wild plums, maples, and buckeyes are scattered along the streams. 

Beneath the shrubs, and in open spots, larkspurs, blue and white lupins, star tulips 
{Calochortus), brodiaeas, gold-back ferns, yerba buena, strawberries, gooseberries, thimble- 
berries, orchids {^Cypripedluin Montanwn), columbines, and hundreds of less familiar flowers 
find shelter. 

In the shady canons, in safe retreat, are nesded shade and water- loving plants. 
Mosses and maiden hair ferns cling to every projection; lilies and broad-leaved plants 
bathe their roots in the water, while giant ferns, five or six feet high, lend dignity and 
elegance. 

Out in the rich valleys and upon the sloping hills nature has made her great color 
show. Here is the home of the famous California poppy (^EschscholtzicC). The eye can 
drink from these myriad yellow cups a brilliant beauty peculiar to this State. Thousands, 
yes, tens of thousands of acres of golden glory enrobe the State in early spring, a few 
blossoms lingering like flickering candles till the season comes again. 

In certain sections baby-blue-eyes {Nemophi/as) claim the ground; in others, yellow 
violets, godetias, or sunflowers have won the battle. Summer ushers in the lupins, with 
stately spikes of yellow, blue, white, or purple blossoms, and from the mountain tops to 
the sea they claim every congenial nook. 

In the southern counties there are the scarlet larkspur, six feet high, and the magnifi- 
cent Romneya Coulteri with glaucus leaves and great crepy white flowers, the gorgeous 
" glory pea " (^Lathyrus splendens), and many less showy plants. 

In the foothills of the Sierra many interesting trees and plants are found. As one 
climbs higher, columbines, saxifragas, frittilarias, iris, and calochortus, grow profusely. 
Red and white lilies lift their chaste blossoms above the banks of the streams, and golden- 
rods light up the rocky niches or cluster about dripping springs. Wild lilacs, azaleas, and 
dogwoods are met with more frequently. Moss-cupped oaks and some firs of exceeding 
beauty become plentiful. Wild cherries, plums, chinquapins, gooseberries, etc., grow in 
thickets. Pitcher plants are tucked away in cool bogs and little lakes and pools are fringed 
with glowing colors. 



FLORA OF CALIFORNIA. 



79 



Now the sugar pines, ten feet in diameter, and the great Sequoia giganteas lift their 
plumed heads hundreds of feet toward the sky, mute sentinels of the forests, the mightiest 
of Hving trees. Nations have arisen and fallen, but they live on, apparently regardless of 
the lapse of time, save in the occasional dropping of a storm-tossed or lightning- smitten 
branch. On up the peaks to the verge of eternal snow flora has carried her gifts, and 
the sparkling crimson snow flower {Sarcodies sanguined), pushes up its beautiful crystalline 
form from the frozen ground as the snow recedes in summer. 

California's adopted flora is almost as bewildering in its profusion as that which nature 
had given her. I have in mind a private garden which has within its restricted space 3000 
kinds of trees and plants, all growing thriftily. 

Nearly all of the Eastern and foreign shade and ornamental trees are found in plenty, 
some sorts, like the Eucalyptus globulus, or blue gum of Australia, being conspicuous 
objects throughout the State. Old-fashioned shrubs, such as lilacs, mock-orange, spirea, 
snowball, sweet shrub, etc., are perfectly at home, and paeonies, chrysanthemums, fox- 
gloves, zinnias, marigolds, dahlias, narcissus, and verbenas are as common as in Eastern 
gardens. Indeed they are sometimes so improved by the climate and soil that old friends 
scarcely recognize them. 

Roses are the pride of Californian gardens, scrambling over fences and cottages, 
crowding each other for room, and sometimes climbing fifty feet to the tops of trees, they 
are, when at their best in spring and fall, worth a journey across the continent to see. 

San Francisco has been called the "Fuchsia City" on account of the luxuriant 
growth attained there by this graceful flower. The humblest porches and windows are 
draped with the coral bells. The fuchsia and its companions, heliotrope, nasturtiums, and 
marguerites, find a place in nearly every yard. Draecenas and palms are frequent in San 
Francisco, as they are indeed in nearly all of California. Tree ferns are also occasionally 
seen. Street trees are not generally planted in the city, the climate being equable and 
cool, and the sunshine being preferable to the shade. Nearly every city, town, and village 
in the State to unaccustomed eyes seems a veritable flower garden. 

Palms, agaves, yuccas, bamboos, and acacias grow luxuriantly nearly everywhere. 
Geraniums and pelargoniums run riot, pelargoniums at Santa Cruz reaching a height of 
six or seven feet, and rose geraniums are frequently met with more than eight feet in 
diameter. Bananas are grown only for ornament, the climate being too dry and the nights 
too cool to successfully produce fruit in quantity. Violets are grown by the acre in the 
neighborhood of San Francisco and Menlo Park, and carnations are grown as a field 
crop in the neighborhood of Los Angeles, the flowers being cut by the million. Sweet 
peas are produced by hundreds of acres in the Santa Clara Valley, and the seed shipped to 
all parts of the world. 

Lawns are somewhat more difficult to manage in California than in the East, but with 
a little care a green sod can be had the year round. California has naturally but few trees 
or shrubs which furnish richly tinted leaves in autumn, but the sugar maple, the sweet 
and sour gums, the sumac, etc., which make brilliant the Eastern landscape in the fall 
season, thrive without special care in nearly all parts of the State, when planted, and the 
coloring of their foliage is even more brilliant here than in their native habitat. 




" Rather this wayside flower ! 
To live its happy hour 
Of balmy air, of sunshine, and of dew. 
A sinless face held upward to the blue." 

— Ina D. Coolbrith. 



THE LIVE STOCK INTERESTS OF CALIFORNIA. 

By Chas. M, Chase. 



A MO RE favored spot does not exiirit upon our great map of States for the breeding 
and rearing of all classes of stock than that portion of our continent extending 
northwest and southeast, from latitude 32° 50' to 42° north, on its western slope, 
and designated on the map as California. 

California is a State of variety in both climate and products, hence a prolific spot for 
the breeding of all kinds of live stock. Such natural advantages exist for cattle raising on 
account of her mountainous and rolling lands, unfitted for other purposes, and which by- 
reason of snow in winter, and their precipitous nature, renders thousands of acres unprofitable 
for cultivation. 

These elevations are covered with rich and succulent grasses, wild oats, clover, 
alfilaria, etc., which are fattening in their green state. Vast fields of wild oats, cured 
standing by the warm, dry air of summer, form excellent fall pasturage, and seeding 
themselves, are reproduced annually by copious rains during the winter and spring months. 
Eight tenths of all cattle slaughtered are from the range, grass-fed, and will bear favorable 
comparison with the stall-fed cattle of the Eastern States. 

The basis of our horned stock were the original herds of the old Catholic Missions and 
the immense bands of long- horned (so-called) Spanish cattle owned by wealthy rancheros. 
Upon the advent of Americans the condition of things changed. Well-bred Durham and 
Devon bulls were imported, the mean, cross-tempered little Spanish toros were killed, and 
a determined effort made to "breed up," with the most happy results. The State now 
abounds with handsome, sleek, well-fed animals, deep red in color, with short horns, well- 
formed, heavy carcasses, most desirable either for stock cattle or the shambles. These are 
denominated American cattle, and are the result chiefly of the continued crossing of well- 
bred Durham and Devon (principally the former) bulls upon the native Spanish cattle. 

The Durhams are the distinctive beef cattle of the State. They are a combination of 
the principal desirable qualities — milk, butter, and beef Some difficulty has been experi- 
enced with thoroughbreds imported, on account of their delicate nature and seeming 
inability to earn their living, but it has been demonstrated that the offspring of these very 
thoroughbreds, when born upon the range and indigenous to the climate and locality, 
have proved themselves " rustlers," equal to the best descendants of the native breed. 

The bulk of the beef cattle of the State may be said to be of the short-horn variety. 
About twenty years ago several small herds of Devon cattle were imported from the 
Western States, and an effort made to cross them with the graded Durhams, it being 
claimed that the Devon, being a mountain cattle, were especially adapted to such a rough 
country as is found on some of the cattle ranges of California. The experiment failed to 
change the settled convictions of stockmen, and was abandoned. 

The Hereford, or "bush" cattle of Australia, were the next breed of beef cattle 
imported with experimental ideas in crossing. These animals were warmly pressed upon 
the attention of Californian stock raisers as being " hustlers" of the highest type. Their 
appearance indicated great quality, and warranted their consideration by many of our 
heaviest stock raisers, who have since become convinced of their excellence. The result 
is, we have several distinct herds in this and adjoining States that are kept up, and demand 
for the young stock each season exceeds the supply. 

Messrs. Heilbron Bros., in Tulare County, John F. Boyd, Contra Costa, Don 
Ray, .Sacramento, and Rancho del Paso Land Company, Sacramento, are the principal 
breeders of this stock in California. Mr. John Sparks, of Reno, Nevada, has an excep- 
tional fine herd of Herefords. Some of his prize herd were successful prize winners at the 
World's Fair in 1893. 

The Holstein-Friesan cattle are a more recent fashionable breed that has attracted 
much attention in this State during recent years by their milking qualities. They are of 
excellent size, great docility, and yield a prodigious quantity of milk that is noted for 



82 CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 

its cheese-making qualities. They also have some quality for beef, but are used almost 
exclusively for their milk production. 

The Polled- Angus, or Galloway, is another imported breed that has many advocates 
for their beef qualities. They are peculiarly adapted to a rugged country, and do well in 
the highest ranges. We have one or two herds of Ayrshires that show most excellent milk- 
ing qualities, but for beef-producing the standard breed is the Durham, or short-horn 
cattle, as they seem to cross and carry their quality better than other classes. 

For dairy purposes the Jersey cattle have undoubted preference. Under this head 
are classed Alderneys. A {^^n of the other island cattle — Guernseys — have been imported, 
but they cut no figure. The Jerseys are without doubt the chief dairy cattle of the State; 
that is, as the foundation. From them, in conjunction with well-bred Durham cows, are 
produced a race of dairy animals that cannot be excelled. 

HORSES. 

Horses have been a prominent factor in California, and the various breeds extensive. 
In its prnnitive days the same state of affairs existed as with cattle. The native animal 
was the well-known " mustang," a wiry creature, scarce fifteen hands, full of fire, and of 
wonderful endurance. Its origin is in doubt. The best theory is, that it is the descendant 
of the Spanish horse originally introduced into Mexico during the time of the Monte- 
zumas. As a vaquero or cattle horse, he has no equal. Of great intelligence, supple as 
a cat, and with the tenacity of a bulldog, he ably seconds the efforts of the rider, and 
never fails to run down the fiercest bullock of the band. At rodeo he is omnipresent; 
flying hither and thither, now in full career after a maddened steer, anon like a statue, 
his mouth, sensitive to the slightest touch, having given the warning that the lasso has 
been thrown and he is to perform his part, that of holding the lariat isMt until the infuriated 
animal can be properly secured. 

Americans were prompt to see the value of this useful animal, and their efiforts have 
been directed to increasing the size without destroying the peculiar characteristics of the 
breed. This has been accomplished by coupling the thoroughbred with approved mustang 
mares, producing a race of animals jnequaled in the world for the purpose for which they 
are intended. Another use for them has been the selecting those with trotting gait and 
breaking them to harness for stage purposes. With six, and even four of these animals and 
convenient relays, most wonderful feats of staging were performed in the early days of this 
State. 

The usefulness of the California mustang is universally recognized. But the rapid 
settlement of this State required other breeds of the horse. Its pastoral nature to a great extent 
disappeared, and the wants of agriculture and commerce, as well as the requirements of a 
higher type of civilization, demanded the most improved strains and those best adapted 
for these various purposes. All sections of the world were drawn upon. The Clydesdale, 
Percheron, Norman, English Shire, and other breeds of draught animals were largely 
imported and judiciously crossed, in most instances with beneficial results. 

Extensive importations were made of the American trotting horse, a distinctive breed 
of animals, exclusively intended for road purposes and light harness service. Expendi- 
tures extending into the milUons have been made in the endeavor to improve and perfect 
this wonderful breed, with entire success. The desideratum of the American trotting 
horse is, speed combined with pure gait, fine form, and perfect action. California has the 
proud honor of leading in this important class, its young horses holding the first rank in 
these essential particulars. The climate of California seems so peculiarly favorable to the 
breeding and development of the equine race that it has been not inappropriately named 
the " home of the horse." 

To California has fallen a lot of some moment in the breeding line, viz. that one stock 
farm should produce and hold the record for a period of time for the fastest one, two, 
three, four, and five-year-old trotters, as well as the stallion trotting record of the world. 
As a matter of history, and as an introduction for the year 1892, a California three-year-old 
(Arion) sold for the highest figure ($125,000) ever paid up to that time, and only equaled 
since, for an animal of any age, size, or breed in these United States, and that animal held 
for the year previous the world's record (2:103^) as a two-year-old, and subsequently 
obtained a mark of 2:07^. 



THE LIVE STOCK INTERESTS OF CALIFORNIA. 83 

Nor is this all. To the great stables of the East went Arion — as did Sultan, Alcazar, 
Mascot, Anteeo, Antevolo, Bell Boy, St. Bel, Ansel, and Woodnut, at an average price of 
$40,000 each. What other State can boast of having produced within its confines and 
sold such an array of stallions as above presented ? 

We still have the blood of that noble Ion in the veins of their descendants, and when 
conditions of trade again return to normal, the breeding interest will again assert itself in 
the avenues of trade. It is but a few years since that our aggregate sales of trotting-bred 
stock in the New York market amounted to $500,000, and home sales $300,000 more, 
while the sales of thoroughbreds from one breeding farm amounted to $120,000 annually, 
aggregating nearly $1,000,000, showing the horse interest to have been of some inportance 
to this State. 

The United States Government has in the past been a heavy purchaser of California- 
bred horses of from 1000 to 1200 pounds weight, of uniform quality. But prices have 
been so low that the breeder of these classes could not meet the competition hereinbefore 
mentioned, and as a consequence either reduced or ceased breeding. 

From statistics gathered by the State Agricultural Society, there is shown to be a ten 
per cent, reduction in the number of horses in this State as compared with the returns of 
one year ago, while there is a perceptible increase in values. The average shows as follows: 
Under one year old, $9 per head; under two years and over one year, $15; under three 
years and over two years, $25; and over three years old, $35, as against $7, $10, $14, and 
$25, respectively, during the year 1895. 

I am of the opinion that a more opportune time to commence the systematic breeding 
of horses never existed; not, however, on tlie haj^hazard idea that anything, so long as 
it is a horse, will do, but by the selection of blood lines that will give uniform merit. The 
farming community of this State can profit by taking advantage of the present conditions, 
and prepare for recovery of values ttiat, in my belief, will come, and be national in 
character. 

SHEEP AND WOOL. 

During the reign of extensive cattle and sheep-raising in California, owners were, meta- 
phorically speaking, knighted as barons who counted their flocks by the tens of thousands; 
ranges extended over a vast territory of unclaimed government land, and with most favor- 
able climatic conditions, California was looked upon as the ideal spot for the production of 
these great essentials, beef and wool. For a time no other industry was thought of. 
Peace and plenty prevailed, and this State was regarded as the Mecca lor mankind. 

Vast flocks of sheep, in bands of from two to three thousand, roamed the ranges in the 
counties of Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Kern, Tulare, Fresno, Merced, 
San Joaquin, Colusa, Yuba, Sutter, Butte, Tehama; in fact, in nearly every county of the State 
where bunch grass and alfilaria grew in abundance. Sheep multiplied with marvelous 
rapidity until 1876, when they numbered nearly 7,000,000 on the various ranges, and 
which year yielded us a wool clip of 56,550,970 pounds, a-t a price in San Francisco of an 
average of fifteen cents per pound in the grease, aggregating over $10,000,000 in value. 

From that year, which proved to be the zenith of the sheep industry, other agricultural 
pursuits grew more profitable. With the falling of prices, owners gradually disposed of 
their flocks and sought other avenues for investment, until to-day, with a change in tariff" 
laws, this great industry has declined tosuch extent that we have only about 2.5oo,ooo.sheep 
in the entire State, with a wool product of 27,195,550 pounds, with nominal value. The 
low tariff" now existing on foreign stocks is not conducive to any extension of this industry 
at this time, although there are now many acres of land that could be better utilized for 
sheep raising than in the growing of any other product, should prices warrant the extension 
of this interest. 

California is essentially a sheep country. Its wild, rugged nature renders a large por- 
tion of it worthless for cultivation. Not only this, but its precipitous canons and gulches, 
and sparse vegetation upon mountain sides, renders such land valueless as cattle pasture. 
Upon such ground sheep may be profitably kept, but only certain descriptions — the 
Merinos. Properly speaking, it should be said the Spanish Merino. This animal seems 
created for California; good for wool, good for mutton, a fine herder, it has all the quali- 
ties to commend it. The French Merino partakes of these good qualities to a limited 
extent, and a cross of the two has proved successful; but the distinctive breed of sheep 



84 CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 

good for all purposes — like the Durham, or short-horn cattle — is the Spanish Merino. 
Small bands of Cotsvvold, Southdown, Leicestershire, and Shropshire have been 
imported, but not extensively. Sheep bred exclusively for mutton, or, to speak generally, 
" short-wool sheep," will be in but little favor until the State becomes more densely set- 
tled, and farmers find it to their advantage to keep a few head upon their meadows and in 
close proximity to their barns. 

SWINE. 

The raising of swine in California, up to within a few years past, was a most profitable 
business, enormous quantities of pork being consumed by the Chinese, and the demand 
for cured meats makes them a most merchantable article of trade. 

Bacon is a staple diet throughout the length and breadth of California, and the demand 
far exceeds local production, the importation of hams, sides, etc., being an important 
item against the State in the balance of trade. 

Going back a period of five years, this industry was extremely profitable, as hogs on 
foot commanded from five to eight cents the year round, according to quality, season, 
and demand; but not unlike other agricultural interests, prices have slumped to from two 
to five cents, and at the latter figure there is good money in hogs yet. 

The Berkshire seems to be the standard breed, as four out of five breeders make 
their selection of this class of young stock, although the Essex, Poland, China, Durocs, or 
Jersey Reds all have their particular followers. Inasmuch as we are importing from five 
to six hundred cars per year of cured meats, it is quite apparent that there is ample room 
for the extension of the hog industry in California at the present writing. With ample 
facilities to grow the most fattening food, and fields of green forage in the shape of alfalfa, 
roots, etc. , no business offers such inviting inducements as the systematic breeding of hogs 
for the market uses. 

CONCLUSION. 

I have only alluded to the most prominent descriptions of live stock which are being 
bred in California, and this State's adaptability for stock raising. Something might be 
said of the breeding of mules, which, during the season of demand, were extensively bred. 
Heavy sums were paid for imported jacks, and a spirit of rivalry existed among breeders 
as to who should produce the largest and best-formed animals. 

Likewise, reference should be made to the Angora goat interest — a somewhat 
important one, as it seems to utilize wild, inaccessible land, otherwise without value. The 
grade kids are an excellent article of food, and the skin of the goat is tanned and made 
into gloves, furnishing an important article of commerce. 

Diseases so disastrous to cattle and horses east of the Rockies are almost unknown 
here. All branches of the industry are conducted upon an intelligent basis, and earnest have 
been the efforts to breed up and improve every description of stock. 

California can boast of the most extensive breeding farms in the United States, if not 
in the world. State pride in this particular prevails in an eminent degree, and during our 
ascendancy to supremacy each new triumph was hailed with joyful delight. 

^ With such energy as we have already shown in this line, who can doubt that Cali- 
fornia will continue to keep her prominence, notwithstanding the present stagnation, as 
one of the leading stock-producing States of the Union ? 



<otux)^nn^(^'t^o.-^ 



Jfc 



" Behold the Holy Grail is found !— 
Found in each poppy's cup of gold ; 
And God walks with us as of old. 
Behold ! the burning bush still burns 
For man, whichever way he turns ; 
And all God's earth is holy ground." 
— Joaquin Miller. 



WOOL AND WOOL HUSBANDRY IN CALIFORNIA. 

By John H. Wise. 



IN the infancy of California's statehood was laid the foundation of her wool and sheep 
industry, which has, since 1850, grown to such an extent that California is nearly the 
largest wool-producing State in the Union. 

As far back as the year 1855, to which we can trace authentic statistical records, we 
find that California produced about 175,000 pounds of wool, and after a period of twenty 
years this industry had been so carefully fostered and developed that, in 1876, the State of 
California produced nearly 57,000,000 pounds of wool. 

Since 1876 there has been a gradual decline in the production of wool until last 
year, when the clip of California amounted to about 30,000,000 pounds. All of this mar- 
velous and rapid development was not alone due to ihe profit attached to the raising of 
sheep and the growing of wool, but to the mildness of our climate, the abundance of ranges, 
and the richness of pasturage. 

In the early history of the State, when California had a small population, there was a 
mere handful of sheep, which came mostly from New Mexico and the territories, yielding a 
very poor and coarse quality of wool. 

After the discovery of gold, and the heavy immigration which was attracted to Cali- 
fornia by the mining excitement, came the development of agricultural and live stock 
interests. 

The pioneer sheep — so to speak — were very poor in quality, both as to mutton and 
wool, but as California increased in population the sheep industry grew larger and more 
important, and the breed of live stock and wool was continually refined, and consequently 
we find that in a period of ten years — from 1854 to 1864 — the clip of California increased 
from 175,000 pounds to nearly 8,000,000, and, in addition, the grade of sheep and wool 
was greatly improved in quality. 

From 1864 to 1874 the production of wool had grown from 8,000,000 pounds to 
nearly 40,000,000, and from 1874 to 1876 there was a further increase of 17,000,000 
pounds, making a total of 56,000,000 pounds, which was the maximum production in 
California since the foundation of the wool industry. 

No industry has been more profitable in this State than that of sheep, and its satis- 
factory results are amply demonstrated in the immense production of wool and the enor- 
mous number of sheep which are now feeding on our ranges. 

Although the woolgrowers raised many millions of pounds more wool in 1876 than 
they do to-day, this shrinkage is largely due to the fact that the productivity of our lands 
is so great for cereals and fruits that the illimitable abundance of free range which was 
accessible to the grower in 1876 is to-day absorbed by the farmer and orchardist; in other 
words, the character of the industry is changing, and must change, in order to accommo- 
date itself to the rapid growth of agricultural interests. 

For a number of years the sheepmen had the freedom of the entire State for grazing 
purposes, and it was not uncommon for growers to run as high as 30,000 to 40,000 head 
of sheep, and this was possible on account of the abundance and cheapness of range; 
neither was it considered more than ordinary for a woolgrower to own a band of four or 
five thousand. In those days, when pastoral interests were paramount, sheep and wool 
commanded high prices, and large fortunes were the result. Many of the richest men in 
California to-day laid the foundation of their wealth in the sheep business, and the oppor- 
tunity which it gave them to study and learn the value of lands in California. 

As California grew older and enlarged its agricultural interests, live stock shrank in 
number, and large owners either went out of the business or transferred their stock to 
territorial lands, where range was cheaper and admitted of larger bands. 

To-day, however, California is one of the largest wool- producing States in the Union, 
and the opportunities for profit, both in wool and mutton, are as plentiful as at any time in 
the history of the State. 

Ahhough there are less sheep in Cahfornia now than in former years, there are ample 
means to duplicate the number which the State had in 1876, because live stock no longer 



WOOL AND WOOL HUSBANDRY IN CALIFORNIA. 87 

depends upon the precarious chances of dry seasons, but has a continuous source of reliance 
in its lands that are made fertile and productive by irrigation. 

Our sheep and wool to-day have been somewhat crippled by an unusual decline in 
value for the past four years, and as a consequence many growers have gone out of the 
business, and the product has been curtailed almost 10,000,000 pounds; but with the 
improvement which is bound to come through proper protective legislation, this industry 
will revive and be once again profitable, and our flocks and production of wool will materi- 
ally increase. 

The mild and equable climate of California makes the raising of live stock of all 
kinds, particularly sheep, peculiarily profitable and satisfactory. The sheep can be herded 
in bands of about 2000, and the losses of stock only result from natural causes, and not 
by reason of severities of climate. As a rule the growers clip their sheep twice a year, 
spring and fall, and the average product of a well-bred sheep is about ten pounds of wool, 
yielding, until recentyears, a revenue of about one dollar a head. This income from the wool 
was calculated to pay more than all of the expenses of running the sheep, and that which 
was derived from the sale of the mutton was safely considered a profit. In a former con- 
dition of the wool business, mutton sheep generally commanded from two dollars and fifty 
cents to three dollars and fifty cents a head. Higher prices have been obtained through 
exceptional circumstances, but these values were general. 

It is unnecessary in this chapter to discuss the wool situation in California to-day, 
because the tariff conditions have been such as not to make wool any more profitable here 
than elsewhere; but with the readjustment of the fiscal policy of the Government, the 
industry will be rehabilitated, and California offers more brilliant opportunities to stockmen 
who are interested in sheep and wool culture than any other State in the Union; but by 
growers already engaged in the business, and those who intend to embark in it, particular 
attention must be paid to the fact that, owing to the general absorption of all available range 
lands, it is absolutely essential for the future woolgrowers of the State to run their sheep 
in smaller bands, not to exceed 400 or 500, to aim always at perfection of the grade of the 
sheep and the quality of the wool, and to run the sheep in connection with some agricul- 
tural enterprise. In other words, there is no country in the world where the soil is capable 
of such a variety of production as in California, and as the new farmer must, in order to make 
a success, diversify his crops, he can easily support a iew hundred sheep for mutton and 
wool purposes, thereby adding to his own profit as well as increasing the production and 
quality of wool in this State. 

California's facilities for irrigation insure immense advantages over every other State in 
the Union, and the sheep industry can be carried on in California on a larger and more 
successful scale than now prevails in the State of Ohio. 

By the disintegration of large bands into small ones, and the adoption of the industry 
by every farmer in the State, we will have an immensely increased production and a refined 
quality of wool that will always command the highest price in the market and yield an 
ample and satisfactory revenue to those who follow the industry. 

To-day California supports 3,000,000 sheep on her ranges, worth over $6,000,000. 
We produced 30,000,000 pounds of wool, that will yield an income to the growers of 
nearly $3,000,000, and as the price of wool approaches its former value our sheep will 
multiply in number and our production of wool will naturally become much larger. 

During the depression which has prevailed throughout the United States for the past 
three years, Californian lands, in common with others, have declined in value. Investors can 
locate in California very cheaply to-day, and embark in the sheep business, which in a short 
time will yield handsome returns. The record of all those who have engaged in the 
business, and who have conducted it conservatively and economically, has been one of 
continuous prosperity, and the same opportunities are offered to-day as were enjoyed years 
ago by the pioneers in the industry, but the modern demands of the business call for con- 
stant improvement, and the State furnishes the opportunity if the grower who owns the 
sheep will furnish the time and labor. 




INDIGENOUS FORAGE PLANTS. 

By W. S. Green. 



THE indigenous forage plants of California are numerous, I think I have cut as 
many as ten varieties with a single stroke of the scythe, all of which made nutritious 
food for stock. All the flowering plants, as well as the grasses, make good hay; 
even some of the thistles make food for stock when cut at the right time. But the plants 
worth noticing are few in number compared to the whole. 

First in importance is wild oats. This grain is like the tame oats of the East, except 
that it is not so large, and that it is provided with a crawling apparatus that, when wet, 
enables the grain to find any crack in the ground and thus bury itself. Oats covered the 
low hills of the coast counties, and contested the valleys of that region with clover, and 
alfilaria grew well on the foothills bordering the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys and 
the sinks and overflowed lands of creeks that ran across the valleys in winter, but which 
became immediately dry on cessation of the season's rainfall. 

While the oat requires plenty of moisture, it always seeks well-drained land. It was 
our best forage plant, for the reason that it was the most extensive, and because it could 
be fed off green, and then the dry oats — owing to our peculiar seasons — was almost as 
good as hay until the fall rains came in quantities sufficient to cause the young oats to 
spring up among the dry; so that on good oat ranges there were but few weeks that stock 
did not fatten. 

The omnipresence of the germ of the oat continues to puzzle old Californians. In 
any region in which oats grew wild, you may take a field miles square and cultivate it for 
a quarter of a century, never allowing an oat to seed, and let it lay for a year and the oat 
— if the season hits it right — will be in evidence to the extent of a good crop of hay! Nor 
is this phenomenon confined to land on which oats grew originally. The wild oats on 
good lands grew as high as seven feet, and as much as five tons of hay to the acre has been 
cut, but the tall oats did not make the best hay. Oats standing very thick and measuring 
not over three feet high makes the best hay. With all this, it is queer that California is 
not well adapted to the cultivation of tame oats. 

Several varieties of clover are indigenous to our soil. A rich bur clover and a large 
red clover seem to be the favorites. The clovers made their appearance in the rich, low, 
well-drained valleys. Unlike the wild oats, the clover did not make its appearance every 
year. After a wet season one could see the clover taking possession of the rich little 
valleys; the oats coming down to near the foot of the hiU, and then a seeming struggle for 
the survival of the fittest ensuing on land that was not exactly hill or valley. The clover 
lands were those of comparatively recent formation, although not covering every character 
of such lands. Clover would make more tons of hay to the acre than oats, and was 
regarded as a richer food, but still it was not so good a forage plant. When it dried out 
it would break up and blow away sooner; it would not stand the tramping of stock so 
well; the dry feed did not last so long, and it was much easier damaged by the early rains. 
And again recurs the queer circumstance that California is not so good a country for culti- 
vated clover as the Eastern States. 

Bunch grass is next in importance as a forage plant. It is found at the sea level and 
in high altitudes. It grows on well-drained areas, on land that most of us thought in early 
days was not good soil, because the bunches of grass were sometimes several feet apart, 
and because on the land between there was hardly any vegetation. "Bunch grass land " 
used to be synonymous for second-class land, but now the term describes good strong 
land— land that will wear well. It is a perennial plant, and makes splendid pasture, but 
except in a few of the mountain valleys is never cut for hay. It dies out under too much 
pasturing, and will not come again after cultivation— it refuses to be domesticated. And 
here again comes in the peculiar oats. Take a district of country, however large, upon 
which bunch grass has always grown indigenous, cultivate it for a term of years and then 
let it rest and it will come to oats ! 



INDIGENOUS FORAGE PLANTS. 89 

These three indigenous plants, with the alfilaria, said to be of European origin, 
covered almost the entire valley and foothill portion of the state, and were the principal 
forage plants when the Americans took possession of the country. Alfilaria is a low plant, 
and will not turn off tons of hay like oats or clover, but is exceedingly rich, both as green 
feed and as hay. Stock of all kinds are very fond of the hay, and will pick it out from 
any other kind and eat it first. This plant grew on our high, well-drained, warm lands. It 
seemed to come with a certain amount of pasturing, but was easily trodden out, and has 
nothing like the persistency of oats or even of clover. 

Along the margins of the streams that overflowed their banks, and at the same time 
drained off well, there grew a pea vine that furnished more forage per acre than any plant 
we can claim as indigenous, but it generally grew interspersed with brush and briars, and 
it seldom happened that there were many unbroken acres of it. The bottoms where it 
grew, sometimes to the height of eight or ten feet, were always valuable for pasture. The 
peas were very small, and there were not very many pods on the vines, I never saw much 
of it cut for hay, but the hay was good for cattle — not very good for horses. 

We had a "blue-joint " grass that cut some figure in indigenous forage. It resembled 
sedge, and grew on land on which water had stood. It grew to the height of perhaps 
two and a half feet. It was tough, and stock would eat other grasses all around it, and 
the hay was not first class. 

The old-fashioned lamb's- quarters is indigenous in California, grows on hard adobe or 
alkali soils, and often made seeming barren land valuable pasturage, especially for sheep. 
It is exceedingly rich in seeds. Next to acorns it furnished the principal food for the 
Digger Indians. With a fan-shaped implement made of willow twigs the squaws would 
thresh the ripe seeds into baskets. These baskets of seed would be carried to the home 
and pounded into meal in stone mortars. The best time for sheep pasture was after the 
ripe seeds had fallen to the ground, from which the sheep would lick them up; and thus it 
would often happen that one would see fat sheep where he could see no forage. 

We had large areas of overflowed lands on which grew a rush we called tule, and 
hence such lands came to be called tule lands. This plant is valueless as food for stock. 
It grows to a height of ten to fifteen feet, but there is no substance to it. On the edges of 
the tules, however, and on spots, there grew several kinds of swamp grass that made 
passable pasturage and fairly good hay. It sometimes happened that clover would follow 
up the receding water, and when it did it grew thick and high. 

Of late years there has appeared a plant we call foxtail, which is a valuable forage plant 
when green, but is absolutely worthless when it begins to dry, and it is not good for hay. 
It is hard to distinguish from the wild oats when green. Its seeds are contained in a fox- 
tail-fashioned head, light and fuzzy. People who have to walk through it tie the bottoms 
of the trouser-legs with a string, but even this precaution does not always prevent the 
creeping foxtail from effecting lodgment in the clothing of trespassers on fields of this 
grain. 

In the mountain valleys there are wild timothy and redtop, wild rye, buffalo grass, 
and the bunch grass of lower altitudes, and swamp grasses of various kinds. 



o^ ,0,, Q^c^^^..— 



The rose entwines the orange-tree, the sea-winds rock the pines, 

And wheat-sheaves lift their golden heads amid the clustering vines; 

The latest glow of sunset still enfolds them evermore, 

While Strength and Beauty stand hand-clasped, upon this Western shore. 

— Carrie Stevens Walter. 



RELIGION AND THE CHURCHES IN CALIFORNIA. 
Bv THE Rev. Horatio Stebbins, D. D. 



IT has been said that wherever the American people go, estabUshing new States or 
extending the empire of constitutional freedom, their first care is to found the institutions 
of religion and education. To this great historic fact, California gives most substantial 
confirmation. The common school is in every valley and on every mountain side, an 
expression of the public opinion of society; and private gifts for education are distinguished. 
It is believed that according to population and period of political organization, no State in the 
Union has richer public provision or private endowments for education. The University of 
California, established thirty years ago, already has an honorable rank among the institu- 
tions of the country. The recent establishment of the Leland Stanford Jr. University, by 
private endowment, is an illustrious instance of far-seeing public spirit, to be perpetuated in 
a great and powerful institution. The Cogswell, Lick, and Wilmerding technical schools 
are destined to have great influence in raising the standard of intelligence in the common 
arts and industries of life. 

At the period of the American conquest the organized form of religion was in the 
hands of the Roman Catholic Church. That ancient Church possessed the land, and did 
much to cherish and sustain the religious sentiment of a people widely scattered over vast 
areas, or gathered in small communities here and there in valleys that afiforded pasture, or 
near the sea, where cove, inlet, or bay gave protection to ships that came for trade and 
barter along the coast. At present the Roman Catholic Church is the largest religious 
body, including about one third of the population of the State, and having a Church 
property valued at about three millions. 

The rest of the population is divided among the different sects of Protestantism, and 
that large class who, without special religious affinities, have the natural moral and religious 
instincts of humanity. Without going into any exact definitions, or giving too much 
importance to statistics, the Church property in California may be valued at about twelve 
millions, and is all taxed as other property is taxed. This, as a "showing" of material 
facts, compares favorably, considering population and period of settlement, with Ohio, 
Illinois, or Minnesota. 

Concerning the spirit of religion in California, there is nothing peculiar, unless we take 
into consideration the conditions of the early American occupation of the country. Men 
were attracted here by the presence of the precious metals. That presence unsteadies 
the mind and unsettles the great ethic of property. As a broad, general fact, men are 
governed by their habits and not by their principles. In the face of this great moral fact, 
California society presents a most striking instance of the superiority of man's moral and 
religious sentiments, without a parallel in the history of our own or any other country. 
Far away, on a lonely shore, to which men of all races and tribes fled like birds of prey to 
their quarry, there has been established a State founded on justice, freedom, and truth. 

The people of California are inclined to attach less importance to accurately formulated 
religion, and trust more to the great primary principles of manhood, honor, justice, and 
kindness, according to common sense, right reason, and a simple faith. 





EDUCATION IN CALIFORNIA. 

By Professor Martin Kellogg. 



THIS State was settled by intelligent people. As soon as the first rush to the 
mines was over, men began to re-establish their homes and to care for the 
welfare of the children. Private schools were opened, then public schools. 
The first Constitutional Convention looked far ahead, and even made forecast for a 
university. Californians were proverbially generous, and as need required the pubHc 




schools were placed on a solid basis. It is nearly fifty years since the immigration of 
1849; what has the State to show for the important interest of education ? Let us begin 
with the common schools. 

In all the cities and larger towns of the State, and in most of the country districts, 
good schools are maintained during the greater part of the year; usually about nine 
months. For the school year 1895-6 the funds from the State apportionment amounted 
to over three millions; from local taxes, to more than two and a half millions; from all 
sources, to more than six and a half millions. The teachers receive a fair compensation, 
and the teaching profession is held in high esteem. Of course most of the common-school 
teachers are women, and, as a class, they represent a good degree of general culture. The 
avenues of admission to the profession are carefully guarded. A large number of these 
teachers have received diplomas from a State Normal School; many have graduated from 




92 CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 

high schools; some have pursued the higher range of studies found in the college courses 
of the universities. 

The standard of excellence in this profession has been much advanced within the last 
ten years. University courses have prepared teachers for the high schools; better high 
school and normal school instruction has given better teachers to the grammar schools. 
Three normal schools exist already, situated at San Jose, Los Angeles, and Chico. A 
fourth was established at San Diego by the last Legislature, but is not yet in operation. 
The principals and teachers in these schools have ranked high in their profession. San 
Francisco has a city normal school, to which high school graduates are admitted for a 
year's additional work. In addition to our own supply of teachers, we have received con- 
tinual accessions from the normal schools, high schools, and colleges of other States. 
Teachers find it easy to drift across the continent in search of a milder climate or a more 
hopeful field of professional activity. 

Mention must be made of provisions for children below the ordinary school ages (the 
school census includes children between the ages of five and seventeen). Kindergartens 
sprang up many years ago in San Francisco, established and fostered by such wealthy and 
large-hearted women as Mrs. Leland Stanford and Mrs. George Hearst. Mrs. Sarah B. 
Cooper became a kindergarten apostle for the city and State, and devoted a large share of 
her remarkable activities to this work. The purpose of these kindergartens was at first 
charitable, to rescue the waifs of the city streets from the evil influences about them; but 
as this instruction proved its value for all young children, the kindergartens have ceased to 
be looked on as missionary enterprises, and paid kindergarten schools are now patronized by 
all classes of society. They are to be found in all the chief towns of the State, and are 
recognized as a permanent factor in the education of the children. In more than half a 
dozen cities or large towns they have been incorporated into the public school system. 
San Francisco has not yet adopted them, but there is a strong movement in that 
direction. 

The regular public school system is organized into a series of eight or nine grades. The 
lower grades are designated as primary, the upper as grammar grades. In some cases 
the lowest grade is subdivided, especially where it is over-crowded with new-comers of 
unequal attainments. Ungraded schools are now found only in the most scattered popu- 
lations of the country districts. The studies of this graded system are ordinarily expected 
to occupy nine years. As some schools are in session fewer months than others, the years 
are not always parallel in results. In all such schools there will be uneven progress, 
owing to differences in ability, in home training, in health, and in favoring circumstances. 
But the graded system is best for the average pupil, and is sufficiently elastic to allow free 
scope for the most forward. 

High schools receive the scholars who wish to go beyond the grammar grades. In 
all the larger communities the country over, high schools are supported as a necessary 
part of an educational system. In California the State Constitution left them out, and they 
depend entirely on local support. But subsequent legislation has provided methods for 
their establishment by local procedure. 

The cities and larger towns organize them as a part of the city or town system; others 
are established by district or by county action. Much interest has been developed in this 
direction, and the number of high schools has increased rapidly during the last {q^n years. 
There are now a hundred of these schools in the State. 

The teachers in these schools are largely college graduates. It is a recognized prin- 
ciple that teachers in any school must be much in advance of their pupils. In the grammar 
grades the least that can be asked is, that the teachers shall have taken the High School 
courses. In the high schools the same principle requires that the teachers have the 
advanced culture of the college courses. From our own universities and colleges, and 
Irom Eastern institutions, a good supply is found for the teaching work of the high 
schools. 

One important function of the high school is to prepare students for the higher col- 
lege courses. It is a necessary connecting link between the common school and the 
university; but the greater majority of the high school students go no further. Their 
needs are met by an elastic arrangement of the courses. The courses leading to the 
university are diverse in aim, and thus furnish studies of widely varying character. Other 
studies are introduced, and other collocations of studies for those who are to end their 



EDUCATION IN CALIFORNIA. 



93 



formal education with the high school. This secondary education, as it is called, has 
come to assume a very important place in the local communities. In literature and 
history, inlanguages, in mathematics, in the natural sciences, a range of instruction is 
offered which used to be found only in the old-time colleges, and some of it was lacking 
there. The modern high school is in reality the people's college brought close to the 
people's homes. 

Following up the State system of education, we come to the university, which stands 
at the head of the system. Our State university was organized by law in 1868, and began 
its work of instruction in the autumn of 1869. Different factors entered into its organiza- 
tion. The most decisive of these was the national grant of public lands by the Morrill Bill 
of 1862. This bill aimed especially to encourage education along the lines of agriculture 
and the mechanic arts. The next most decisive factor, and not less potent, was the sur- 
render by the College of California of its property, name, and good-will, in favor of the 
broader institution. That college had made creditable advances in promoting the higher 
education in this State, and turned over to the university the magnificent site now occupied 
at Berkeley. The State added university funds reserved for such a purpose, with a special 
tide-land endowment. It appropriated money for the first buildings at Berkeley, and, in 
later years it made some special appropriations for certain departments. In 1887, and 
again in 1897, it set apart for the university a tax of one cent on a hundred dollars of 
valuation; or, in the terms used in other States, one tenth of a mill on the dollar. This 
last subsidy was voted with entire unanimity by both houses of the Legislature. 

Private benefactions have been added, but more tardily than to the Atlantic universi- 
ties. Edward Tompkins gave the first endowment of a professorship, D. O. Mills the 
second. The Reese Library, the Bacon Art Gallery, the Harmon Gymnasium, bear the 
names of private donors. Many minor gifts were received from time to time. Last year, 
Mrs. Phebe A. Hearst offered to erect two permanent buildings worthy of the university; 
and anonymous benefactors have promised to follow her example. She is now waiting for 
the completion of a harmonious plan for the whole site, to be furnished by a competition of 
superior architects in this and other countries; and she bears the expense of securing the 
plan. In a very few years, therefore, Californians expect to see the beginning of such 
construction on this unrivaled site as will be worthy of a great university. It remains for 
the public-spirited and far-seeing citizens of the State to be equally generous in endowing 
the many important chairs of instruction. 

In numbers, the university already holds a very respectable place among the univer- 
sities of the land. The register for this year shows a total of no on the teaching staff of 
the academic departments at Berkeley, and of 130 in the Affiliated Colleges in San Fran- 
cisco. Three hundred and forty-three separate courses of instruction were given at Berke- 
ley. The students at Berkeley number about 1500; in San Francisco about 720 — in all, 
2220. The colleges in San Francisco are those of law, medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, and 
veterinary science; also the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art, in the splendid home reared 
by Mr. Hopkins and presented to the Art Association by Mr. E. F. Searles. The Lick 
Observatory, at Mt. Hamilton, is a constituent part of the university. Under the care of 
the Regents is also the new Wilmerding School, for educating boys in mechanical 
employments. 

Education in California has much to show outside of the organized public system. 
Private schools and institutions of all grades, from the kindergarten to the secondary 
school, the college, and the university, have received a large patronage. Especially note- 
worthy are the schools which furnish preparation for college courses. Some of these rival 
the best high schools, and are patronized by many in preference to the public school. Yet 
the high schools, with their free instruction and their well-developed courses, satisfy the 
great majority of parents. Their efficiency has been greatly increased by a close connec- 
tion with the State University, under a very thorough system of accrediting. The leading 
private schools of a like grade seek the same recognition, by which pupils are admitted 
to the university without examination. 

The Roman Catholic educators of the State have built up numerous flourishing 
parochial schools, and have planted colleges in some of the chief cities. Different religious 
denominations have devoted much effort to the establishment of colleges and academies 
and theological seminaries. The Mills College for young women has grown out of a flour- 
ishing seminary established near Oakland. The Belmont School for Boys has incorporated 



94 



CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 



as a permanent institution, retaining as its principal the founder, President Wm. T. Reid. 
The Throop Polytechnic School, at Pasadena, has a foundation which promises well for 
this division of advanced education. The Lick Mechanical School, in San F"rancisco, pre- 
pares students for handicrafts, and has a course leading to the Colleges of Science. Other 
schools make a specialty of manual training, and some of them are incorporated into the 
public school system. During the year 1896 the number of children between the ages of 
five and seventeen who attended private schools was set down as 21,405; in San Francisco 
alone, 9070. 

By far the most important institution due to private munificence is the Leland Stan- 
ford [unior University, founded by Senator Stanford, and situated at Palo Alto. It was 
opened in 1891 with a full and able corps of professors and a very large attendance of students, 
many of whom followed the new professors from institutions beyond the Rocky Mountains. 
President David Starr Jordan is at its head. Since the death of the founder, Mrs. Stanford 
has devoted herself, with great success, to the management of the properties constituting a 
part of the ample endowment of the university. The buildings already erected are unique 
in construction. The attendance of students is about iioo. 

Ten years ago the State University had an attendance, at Berkeley, of barely 300 
students. Now these two universities, California and Stanford, have an attendance of over 
2500 academic students. No other State can parallel this increase within the last decade. 
The stimulus has not been to college training alone. The high schools of the State have 
received fully as great an impulse. The whole line of common schools has felt the benefit 
of this increased desire for higher and more thorough education. Private institutions have 
shared in the new enthusiasm. California may well congratulate herself on the educational 
outlook for the future. 




^ 



POLITICAL STATUS OF CALIFORNIA AS DETERMINED BY 

ELECTION STATISTICS. 

By Horace Davis. 



A DISCUSSION of this question involves substantially a political history of the State, 
or at least a review, not only of the figures, but of the causes producing political 
changes from election to election. My own political bias, being towards the 
Republican party, may influence my view of the causes at work, but it cannot change the 
figures; a Democrat might find difierent reasons for the fluctuations. 

In considering these fig-ures we hardly need to go back beyond Governor Low's 
election in 1863, when the State first fell into line with a decided Republican majority, but 
for a better understanding it may be useful to give the vote of i860 and 1861, as marking 
the changes. 

There are three ways of expressing the popular voice which are worth considering. 
First, the Presidential vote; second, the vote for Governor; and third, the Congressional 
vote. By considering the three we shall in the long run pretty well eliminate local 
influences and considerations of personal popularity or unpopularity. Therefore, I will 
first take a general historical review of the successive elections in their regular order, and 
the causes at work to produce the political fluctuations; then we will note the varying 
result in each class of elections; after which we shall be ready to draw our conclusions. 

Prior to i860 California had in the main been Democratic, but that year four tickets 
were in the field; the American party headed by Bell, the Republican represented by 
Lincoln, and the two wings of Democracy called after their respective leaders, Douglas and 
Breckinridge; amid all this political confusion Lincoln carried the State by the slim 



POLITICAL STATUS OF CALIFORNIA. 95 

plurality of 711 votes, though polling only 32.3 per cent, of the entire vote cast. The next 
year Stanford, the Republican candidate for Governor was elected by 23,286 plurality, 
though still slightly short of an actual majority. 

In 1863 the Republicans under Low polled 59 per cent, of the entire vote, with a 
majority of 19,602; this was the high tide of Republican success. The next year Lincoln 
carried the State by 18,293, with nearly the same plurality as Low. 

In 1867 came a great change. The war was over; the reconstruction measures of 
the Republicans displeased many voters; their candidate for Governor was unpopular, 
while Haight the Democratic leader was much respected, and he won by 7458 plurality, 
with 54 per cent, of the total vote; but in the Congressional vote of the same year the 
aggregate Democratic majority was only 3910. 

In the next year's Presidential canvass Grant carried the State by the meagre majority 
of 506. The Congressional elections of the same year gave an aggregate Republican 
majority of 675. 

The Gubernatorial term had been lengthened in 1862 from two to four years, so that 
we had no general State election till 1871; that year Booth carried the State for the 
Republicans by 5,061 majority; which was slightly exceeded by their Congressional 
majority of 5474. 

In 1872, the Democrats were demoralized by the nomination of Greeley, and the State 
went for Grant by 12,234 plurality, polling almost the same number of votes as he did four 
years previously, while the Democratic vote fell off 14,000; the total Presidential vote of 
the State being actually 12,854 less than in 1868. The Republican Congressional 
majorities were only 2470. 

The State election in 1875 was a three-cornered fight. The Republicans were 
divided on local and personal issues, and lost pretty much everything. Irwin, the Demo- 
cratic candidate for Governor, was elected by 30,187 plurality, though polling only 50.2 
per cent, of the vote. The Democratic Congressional majority was 18,899. 

But the next year, in the National canvass of 1876, the divisions were healed and the 
two old parties met with solid front. Hayes carried the State by a majority of 2821 in a 
total vote of 155,767. The Republican Congressional majority was 6,792. 

The next three years were a period of great political confusion. The hard times, 
which at the East led to the Greenback movement and the Bland Bill, had fairly reached 
the Pacific States; aggravated by the failure of the Comstock Lode, they resulted in the New 
Constitution movement, the crusade against Chinese immigration, and the Kearny riots. 

The election of 1879 was a three-cornered fight between the Republican, Democratic, 
and Workingmen's tickets. The Republicans carried the day, electing Perkins by 20,300 
plurality, though polling only 42.4 per cent, of the entire vote. Their Congressional 
plurality was only 11,228. 

The Civil War issues were losing their force, and at the next Presidential canvass in 
1880 Chinese immigration became a prominent factor. Hancock, the Democratic candi- 
date, carried the State by the meagre plurality of 114 votes, one Republican elector being 
chosen, out of six. The Greenback candidate polled two per cent, of the entire vote. 
The Republican Congressmen, however, had a plurality of 612. 

By the New Constitution the State election was brought on the even years, and in 1882 
the Democrats swept the State, polling 54 per cent, of the entire vote, and electing Stone- 
man by 23,519 plurality. This was the highwater point of Democracy in the State. 
The issues which brought about this landslide to Democracy were mainly the railroad 
question and Chinese immigration. The Democratic Congressional plurality was 15,921. 
The Prohibition and Greenback vote was very light this year. 

In 1884 the Republicans recovered their strength and carried the State for Blaine by 
a plurality of 13. 181. The principal motives in the canvass were the tariff and Blaine's 
personal popularity. The outside vote was very light. The Blaine ticket polled about 
52 per cent, of that cast. The Republican Congressional plurality was only 10,382. 

In 1886 came another drawn batde. In a total vote of 195,660, the Democrats 
elected Bartlett as Governor by a plurality of 652; they gained also half the State ticket. 
The Republicans elected their Lieutenant-Governor, the rest of the State ticket, and four 
out of six Congressmen. The Republican Congressional plurality was 221 1. The 
independent vote for Governor amounted to over 26,000. 

In the Presidential canvass of 1888 the Republicans scored a substantial victory, 



96 



CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 



casting very nearly 50 per cent, of the entire vote, and choosing their electors by a plurality 
of 71 II in a total vote of 250,220, while their Congressional plurality was 10,320. About 
8000 outside votes were cast for President. 

At the State election of 1890, Markham, the Republican candidate, was elected by 
7945 plurality, polling 49.5 per cent, of the total vote, 252,457. The scattering vote was 
over 10,000. The RepubHcan Congressional plurality was 8396. 

The Presidential election of 1892 was very closely contested, Cleveland winning by 
only 141 plurality in a total vote of 269,585; the margin was so close that one Republican 
elector, Bard, was chosen. The Presidential vote for Populist and Prohibitionist amounted 
to over 33,000. The Democratic Congressional plurality was 16,343. This was partly 
due to a fusion with the Populists in the Sixth District, but deducting that vote there still 
remained the handsome plurality of 6500. 

At the State election in 1894 the Democratic candidate for Govenor was chosen by 
1206 plurality; but the Republicans elected the rest of the State ticket by pluralities rang- 
ing from 17,380 for Superintendent of Schools to 40,857 for Treasurer. The Republican 
Congressional plurality was 21,201; part of this was due to a split among the Democrats 
in the Fifth District. The total vote for Governor was 284,548, of which 61,865 were 
cast for Prohibition and Populist candidates. 

During the decade from 1884 to 1894 the Republicans have evidently gained consider- 
able strength from the influx of Eastern people into the southern part of the State, and 
secondly from the growth of the tariff sentiment due to the increase of fruit and wine 
production. Now we come to a new issue, the sound money question, and the battle of 
1896 was fought out mainly on this ground; 296,127 votes were cast, of which McKinley 
polled 49.2 per cent., having an average plurality of 1800 and securing eight Presidential 
electors, while the Democrats succeeded in choosing one. The Democrats and Populists 
were united, so that the outside scattering vote was only 6500. The Republican Con- 
gressional plurality was only 848. 

This closes our historical record, and before going farther I ought to give credit to 
McCarthy's statistician for most of the figures quoted above. Now let us bring all these 
figures together into one body that we may see their meaning. For this purpose I have 
constructed a Table of Pluralities, which tells the story of the whole thirty-seven years at a 
glance. 

TABLE OF PLURALITIES. 





Presidknt. 


Congress. 


Governor. 




Rep. 


Dem. 


Rep. 


Dem. 


Rep. 


Dem. 


i860 


711 
18,293 












I86I 
1863 

1864 




15,747 
21,333 
18,160 




23,286 
19,602 




T867 


3,910 




7,458 


t868 


506 




675 


T87T 


5,474 


5,061 




1872 


12,284 




2,470 




1875 








18,899 




30.187 


T876 


2,821 


114 


6,792 

11,228 

612 


1879 
t88o 




20,300 




tS8? 


15,921 




23,519 


1884 


13. 181 




10,382 


1 886 
1888 


7,111 
1,800 


141 


2,211 

10,320 

8326 

21,201 

848 


.... 




652 


1890 
1 89 2 
1894 
1896 


16,343 


7,945 


1,206 




56,707 


255 


130,305 


60,547 1 


76,194 


63,022 



The Republicans have won eight Presidential canvasses, the Democrats two; the 
Republicans have pluralities in eleven Congressional elections, the Democrats in five. 
Clearly, then, in national matters the State is Republican. In State elections the lines are 



CALIFORNIA'S CALL TO THE IMMIGRANT. 



97 



not so clearly drawn; as we descend from national to local issues, the position of the State 
becomes more uncertain, though it still has a decided Republican preponderance. 

To get a different perspective, let us examine the figures from another position— from 
the standpoint of time. Let us divide the thirty-seven years under review to three nearly 
equal periods, — the first from i860 to 1872, the second from 1S75 to 1884, the third from 
1886 to i8g6. In the first period the elections were controlled by the Civil War issues, 
and the State was unquestionably Republican. In the second, the hard times, the Chinese 
Immigration, and the railroad question came to the front, and in local issues the State 
decidedly leaned to the Democracy during this decade, though in the main Republican on 
on national questions. 

During the ten years from 1886 to 1896, the State resumes her place in the Republi- 
can column with considerable certainty. I attribute this, as before said, to the immigration 
into the southern part of the State, and to the increasing interest in a protective tariff. It 
may be claimed that the canvass of 1896 was fought on new issues, partly outside the old 
party lines; but if we deduct this, it does not materially change the result As shown 
by the election statistics California remains a Republican State. 



J- 



CALIFORNIA'S CALL TO THE IMMIGRANT. 
By John P. Irish. 

(Chairman Committee on Immigration, California State Board of Trade.) 



IT is not pretended that California supplies any specific from the wealth of her soil and 
sunshine that will cure unthrift, bad judgment, and lack of faculty, or make of the 

do-less a doer. But there is legitimate basis for the belief that here the average man 
may work in greater comfort more days in the year and earn his bread easier than under 
Eastern conditions. 

CaHfornia is a winterless land. No deep frost chills the ground; vine and fig tree 
don't have to thaw out as a preliminary to going into business as fruit-bearers. All the 
stone fruits, and the fig, pomegranate, orange, lemon, lime, pear, and apple are precocious 
bearers. The peach will bloom the second year from the pit. On the Mediterranean the 
olive fruits meagerly at seventeen years of age; here it bears a full crop at seven. In the 
East he must be a young man who plants a tree expecting to repose in its shade or to eat its 
fruit. Here old men may plant, and surely expect to enjoy the results. The growth of 
animals is not checked here by withering winter, and a yearling horse is the equal of an 
Eastern two- year- old. 

But, it may be asked, is not this precocity of animate and inanimate life compensated 
by early decay? The answer is, No. That rule has here its exception. The peach tree 
that blooms before the shell of the pit that bore it is decayed, bears on for thirty years or 
more. Olive trees that furnished oil for the sacraments to the old Mission fathers a hun- 
dred years ago, shade the graves of the gardeners who planted them, and ripen their 
yearly crop with unabated energy. 

But men fail in California ? Yes. Men who buy land and hire it planted and worked, 
running it on the absentee landlord system, fail here and everywhere. So do men fail 
who run manufactures and trade on the same system. But men who take here only so 
much land as they can till and tend with the labor of their own families, do not fail, for 
here Nature helps the industrious hand, and nowhere else does intelligent labor add as 
much to the value of land, for the reason that here Nature holds one handle of the plow. 

The advantage that California has in a climate where growth and production go on 
without pause, is seen when a farmer finds his vines and trees, fields and truck-patch, pro- 
ducing something for the market every month in the year. 



98 CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 

What effect does the climate have upon the cost of living? Where the pastures 
yield natural forage, green or dry, every day, where the waters never freeze, where vege- 
table growth goes on forever, and the storage of vegetables for winter use is unnecessary, 
because they are growing and fresh daily, it is natural that the cost of living should be 
less than where the summer and fall are spent in hard labor to store food and fuel against 
the long winter that suspends production. Beef and mutton from the ranges and fish 
from the waters, fruit and vegetables, reach market here in a condition for use more cheaply 
than elsewhere. 

The economic value of climate should be considered in selecting a home; first, in 
respect to the health of the family, and, second, in respect to the number of days yearly in 
which your vocation may be followed. California, it may be said, has no endemic dis- 
eases. Except in the high Sierra Nevada Mountains, the snow does not impede outdoor 
occupation. There are no tornadoes or chilling blasts, nor are there any sudden changes 
in temperature which imperil life. The heat in the valleys, though high as indicated by 
the thermometer, is not excessive enough to prevent labor in the fields in the hottest days; 
because the air, being dry, the latent heat of the body is rapidly eliminated, and the blood 
is kept cool. 

It will bear repetition that every day in the year is a working day. It follows that it 
costs less to live in California than in any other State in the Union, and the comfort of life 
is greater. The retail prices of food average about as follows: Meat, 8 to 15 cents per 
pound; flour, $2 to $2.50 per 100 pounds; corn meal, lo-pound sack, 25 cents; graham 
flour, lo-pound sack, 30 cents; potatoes, i^ cents per pound; turnips, 12 cents per dozen; 
cabbages, i^ cents per pound; onions, i^ cents per pound; green corn, 30 cents per 
dozen; fresh butter, 20 to 25 cents per pound; firkin butter, 10 to 20 cents per pound; 
eggs, 25 to 35 cents per dozen; hams, 15 to 18 cents per pound. Dried fruit, per pound — 
apricots, 10 and 12 cents; apples, 8 and 10 cents; peaches, 10 to 16 cents; prunes, 8 and 
10 cents; pears, 7 and g cents; figs, 5 and 8 cents. Ripe fruit — apples, 50 cents per box; 
pears, 50 and 75 cents per box; peaches, 40 and 60 cents per box. A comparison with 
Eastern prices will show the margin in favor of California. 

It easily suggests itself that the equability and high temperature of our winterless 
climate permit you to build a house at one half the cost of a house in a winter country. 
The intending settler should fix firmly in his mind the topography of California. We have 
a winter season called "wet," and a summer called "dry." In the winter months the 
average rainfall is about twenty-five inches, distributed through four months of the year, 
and this is more than sufficient to insure abundant crops. California is about 850 miles 
long, and contains 158,360 square miles. Her coast line extends as far as from Boston to 
Savannah. At the same altitude the climate is practically the same in the north as in the 
south of the State; hence, San Diego in the south and the country 600 miles north pro- 
duce identically the same crops. On the west slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, at 
an elevation of from 400 to 1000 feet, is the famous foothill warm belt, stretching from 
Shasta to Kern County, and noted for the superiority of its fruits, including the fig, orange, 
lemon, and olive. There is one great valley; its south end rests on the Tahachapi Moun- 
tains, and its north end is lifted up by Mount Shasta. This great trough sags in the 
middle, and the rivers that run from each end escape into San Francisco Bay through a 
common delta. From these rivers we name each end of the valley, thus giving the 
impression that there are two valleys. The north end of the valley is the valley of the 
Sacramento, with an area of 4,000,000 acres. The south end is the valley of the San 
Joaquin, with 7,000,000 acres. This valley is the seat of wheat and raisin culture. On 
the west of this great valley rises the Coast Range, in which lie a number of fertile and 
extensive valleys; such as Santa Maria, Sonoma, Napa, Salinas, Santa Clara, Vaca, and 
Suisun. In most of these, fruit-growing is the principal industry. The slopes of the Coast 
Range, toward the sea, and the high Sierra, are favorable to dairying. To some extent, 
therefore, the settler is guided in the selection of his residence by the business he desires 
to pursue. 

Our industry is manifested by the fact that, while the population of the State is about 
2.20 per cent, of the population of the United States, the true value of the property 
of the State is 3.20 per cent, of the true value of property in the United States, according 
to the census for 1890. Or, to put it in another form, the valuation per capita in 
the United States was $1036, while in California it was $2097. The output of gold last 



CALIFORNIA'S CALL TO THE IMMIGRANT. 



99 



year was about $18,000,000. The yield of wheat annually is about 30,000,000 bushels; 
barley, 16,000,000; and corn, 6,000,000, and the value of fruit in all forms is not less than 
$30,000,000. 

We expend annually $6,000,000 for the maintenance of the public schools. There 
are ninety high preparatory schools for the University and six normal schools. At the 
State University there are 1500 students, and at the Stanford University iioo students. 

The State is entirely out of debt. The financial report shows that the State debt is 
about $2,500,000, but this is only a form of statement. There is that amount of State 
bonds, but the bonds are owned by the State and are covered into the State School Fund. 
The State pays the interest to the School Fund, which is annually apportioned to the pub- 
lic schools. 

Taxation is not burdensome. It is true California has numerous public institutions — • 
penal, corrective, and charitable — but when the cost per capita of maintaining their 
inmates is examined, in comparison with the cost in other States, it is shown that public 
administration here is not extravagant. 

The cost per capita, per day, of convicts is, in Illinois, .4027; Wisconsin, .3550; Iowa, 
.3643; California, .3333. 

The average cost per capita, per diem, of insane in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa, is 
.4607; in California, .4539. 

The cost of homes for the blind in lUinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa, per capita, per 
diem, is .837; in California, .440. 

Compared with the cost of these institutions in New York, California makes an 
equally favorable showing, as follows: — 

N. Y. Cal. 

Convicts 38 3333 

Insane 51 4539 

Adult blind 87 44 

All of the foregoing figures are for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1895. 

It is apparent, then, that if California has a reputation for public extravagance, it is 
undeserved, and the intending immigrant need not hesitate for fear that his interests will 
suffer by reason of high taxation, due to the waste of public money. 

It is not given to all men to be wealthy ; but every original fortune in this country was 
founded in some man's determination to make a living, and provide for life's decline when 
labor is impossible. Immigration flows where a living may be made under the most 
favorable conditions. The variety of resources in California invites an equal variety of 
tastes, training, and experience. If a man desire to mine, look at the map in this book. 
Along the western flank of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, for 800 miles, is the world's 
greatest gold field. It has already yielded $1,000,000,000 from the merest scratching of 
its surface. Chemical and mechanical improvements have taken nearly all of the element 
of chance out of mining, and a man may consider that occupation now as he may farming 
or fruit-growing, trade or manufacturing. 

Horticulture here rises to the rank of a profession. Our soil and climate are so 
adapted to it that fruits from every zone may be grown. The clemency of our climate and 
its halcyon quality invite enterprise and ingenuity to experiment in all horticultural refine- 
ments. By hybridizing and the tendency to ' ' sport ' ' inherent in the climate, we have 
added largely to the varieties of fruits and nuts. Here has been the only successful experi- 
ment in hybridizing the soft berries by which the blackberry and raspberry have been com- 
bined in a new fruit of the finest quality and productiveness. Since God planted a garden, 
eastward in Eden, no equal area of the earth's surface has produced profitably a variety 
of the fruits of tree, vine, and shrub, equal to that of California. ; 

The beginning of all successful manufacture is in the transmutation of the most abun- 
dant raw material into more merchantable or more permanent forms, for transportation 
and use at a distance. The State is not yet sufficiently supplied with plants for drying 
and canning our surplus fruits, or for reducing them to fine jellies, jams, pickles, pastes, etc. 

Immigrants who have a taste for these arts will find here a growing field. No place 
presents better facilities for variety farmmg as it is practiced in the Mississippi Valley. 
With a small tract of land, which may be cared for by the labor of an ordinary family, 
with some orchard and vineyard bordered with almond and English walnut trees, produc- 
ing some alfalfa and grain, and carrying some cows, pigs, and chickens, the owner will find 



loo CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 

something- produced for market every day in the year, while his family living will nearly 
all come directly from the soil he tills. 

If commerce be attractive to the immigrant, he will see at once the advantage of 
handhng the great variety of products offered for exchange in the markets of the world. 
The commerce of San Francisco averages, per annum: — 

Domestic products $70,000,000 Exports East, by rail |5o,ooo,ooo 

Foreign imports 60,000,000 To interior points 20,000,000 

Exports 60,000,000 

'PQtjjl $260,000,000 

The reader will find the subjects herein generalized treated in greater detail in the 
other chapters of this book. This treatment is conservative, and is intended only to 
invite that careful personal examination which the prudent man makes who desires to 
better his condition by changing his place of abode. We who are here in daily contact 
with what Nature has wrought out are so fond of our State that we believe the intelligent 
and industrious immigrant will soon be able to say: "The Hues are fallen unto me in 
pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage." 




. <e7V>c^^ 



^ 



CALIFORNIA AND THE INSANE. 
By a. M. Gardner, A. M., M. D., Superintendent Napa State Hospital. 



IN the year 1851 the first State hospital for the care, custody, and treatment of the 
insane was erected in the city of Stockton. At various times since the above date, 
there have been established by legislative enactment four other State institutions, 
all of which are devoted to the same ends; making in all five State hospitals that are 
to-day engaged in this charitable work. Upon the 30th day of April, 1897, the total 
number of insane under State care in California numbered 4814. Probably 125 insane 
persons are being cared for in private asylums. 

Early in the history of the State it was determined that the insane should become the 
wards of the State, and ever since the opening of the hospital located at Stockton, up to 
the present, the State of California has assumed the entire control, custody, and treatment 
of its insane. That system of caring for the insane which recognizes them as wards of the 
State is known as State care in contradistinction to that system which permits a certain 
proportion of the insane in any State to be cared for in prisons, jails, and county alms- 
houses. 

STATE CARE AS COMPARED WITH ALMSHOUSE AND PRISON CARE. 

A brief comparison of these methods of caring for the insane should now be made in 
a discussion of this subject, in order to make clear certain propositions that will be con- 
sidered later on. There is a wide-spread concensus of opinion among those who have an 
extended experience in dealing with the insane, that State care affords the best means and 
methods for the protection of these unfortunate people. Many of the worst horrors that 
have been connected with the management of the insane during the past fifty years have 
found a breeding place, and have been carried to their full consummation within the walls 
of prisons, county jails, and almshouses, abodes in which an uncertain number of the insane 
are still maintained in several of the Eastern States. 

As stated before, CaUfornia had early learned this lesson of humanity, and commenced 
its practical application, viz. State care. New York has recendy learned the same lesson, 
and now assumes the entire control and care of its insane population. Several others of 



CALIFORNIA AND THE INSANE. loi 

the Eastern States have done hkewise. These instances will show to the reader the trend 
of public opinion, an opinion which has been productive of excellent and rapid results in a 
few States, which is slowly affecting others, and which has failed to make any impression 
whatever upon those States which still continue the county almshouse and prison manage- 
ment. It is probable, however, that the time is not far distant when all the insane in the 
United States, except those in private asylums, will be placed exclusively under State 
control. 

To compare the number of insane in any particular State with the number of insane in 
any other State, giving reasons why a difference of numbers should exist, the population 
in each State being approximately the same, is exceedingly difficult of accomplishment. 

LUNACY LAWS 

There are various reasons why this is true: — 

First — The laws under which the insane are committed, and which control and direct 
this department of State government are unlike in most of the different States. The 
lunacy laws of New York and California place all the insane under State care, with the 
exception of those in private asylums. The lunacy law of Pennsylvania permits an uncer- 
tain number of the insane to be provided for in prisons, jails, and county almshouses. 
The population of New York in 1890 was 5,497,853, that of Pennsylvania, 5,258,014. 
Notice the population of each State is nearly the same; still the insane in New York at the 
close of that year numbered 16,624, while the insane in Pennsylvania at the same date 
numbered 761 1 ; by this ^a/^ it would seem that New York had 9013 more insane then 
Pennsylvania, the population of each State being nearly the same. Can this be true ? 
Certainly not. Had the the lunacy laws been the same in each State no such discrepancy 
would have existed. The facts are. New York reports all its insane; Pennsylvania does 
not; hence the difficulty of making a just comparison. The above difficulty exists when 
we endeavor to compare the number of insane in California under State care with any 
other State where State care does not exist. Comparisons under such circumstances will 
be invariably detrimental to California or any other State which assumes the entire control 
of its insane. 

RELATIONS OF LARGE SEAPORT CITIES TO INSANITY. 

Second — The location of large seaport cities within the confines of a State will make 
a marked difference in the number of insane that the State will have to care for, and for 
the reason that such cities contain a large foreign element in their population. This being 
true, it will be necessary to show that the foreign population as found in this country con- 
tributes a large quota of our insane. During the time intervening between October i, 
1880, and September 30, 1895, there were 10,903 insane persons admitted to the New York 
City Asylums. Of this number 3453 were born in the United States, and the nativity of 
forty-eight was unknown. The remaining portion of the 10,903, that is, 7402, were 
foreign born. This clearly shows what an important factor this large seaport city with its 
foreign population is in estimating the causes which, taken together, contribute to the large 
number of insane found in the State of New York. What bearing, if any, may the sea- 
port city of San Francisco have upon the number of insane found in California ? During 
the fiscal year comm.encing July i, 1895, and ending June 30, 1896, 1145 insane persons 
were admitted to our State hospitals. Of this number 577 were born in the United States, 
and the nativity of sixty-six was unknown. The remaining portion of the 1145, that is, 
515, were foreign born, and over one third of the total number committed, viz. 346, were 
received from San Francisco. 

The above statement shows how important it is in comparing the insane of one State 
with that of another, to consider large seaport cities and their population; and all other 
conditions being equal, those States having large seaports will be burdened with the largest 
number of these unfortunate people. If fiirther evidence were needed to impress this 
deplorable state of affairs upon the mind of the reader, I would state that at the present 
time. May 27, 1897, California is caring for 4789 insane individuals, and of that number 
2725 are foreign born. If California was caring for those born in the United States, it 
would only be burdened with 2064, or less than one half of the number above mentioned. 
These incompetents, many of them consisting of the scum, riff-raff, and dregs of an over- 



102 CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 

crowded European population, are burdening every State hospital for the insane in the 
United States; but especially those situated in States with large seaports. 

The above figures tell their own story as far as California is concerned. This State 
also constitutes the tramp's and hobo's paradise. For almost twelve months in the year 
they can roam from one part of the State to another, unkempt and unclean. They usually 
need no other shelter than the blue canopy of heaven. That which they cannot beg from 
those more worthy than themselves, they steal; and finally, in not a few instances, find 
their way into a State hospital for the insane, a burden still to the body politic. 

AGRICULTURAL DISTRICTS AS COMPARED WITH CITIES AND THE INSANE. 

Third — States with large agricultural districts which furnish healthful out-door employ- 
ment for a large number of their inhabitants will have fewer insane than States with large 
and densely populated cities, where thousands are employed in pursuits which are not con- 
ducive to physical health, and hence often lead to mental impairment. The trend of 
modern civilization is toward the massing of a great number of people in our large cities. 

" In 1790 only one thirtieth of our country's population lived in cities of over 8000 
inhabitants; in i8go nearly one third. In 1790 there were only six cities in our 
country with a population of 8000 or more, while in 1890 there were four hundred and 
forty-eight."* 

This condition of affairs, when once known, cannot but attract attention of every 
thinking man and woman. Just what this means to the commonwealth as a whole, and to 
each State, morally, intellectually, and socially, will depend upon how these great masses 
of people live in these large cities. While the wealthy have their sources of dissipation 
and degeneration, which often lead to insanity, still it is the poverty-stricken to whom we 
must look for the greater number of the recruits that fill our State hospitals. To substantiate 
the truthfulness of the preceding statement, I will state that in 1890 there were 91,959 
insane persons in the United States; of this number 88,66^ were paupers, of whom 22,961 
were foreign born. 

For the data showing how they live in New York City, I am indebted to statements 
made in the June number of the Arena, 1897, by Professor W. I. Hull, Ph. B. Mul- 
berry Bend is known in New York City as " New York's Italy." The name is suggestive 
of the nativity of the inhabitants. Extending in various directions from the " Bend" are 
crooked and dark passages, which are fined with towering tenement houses. These are the 
homes (?) of the masses we are considering. Every race, every land, and almost every 
nation, tongue, and kindred, are represented here. So great has been the influx of people 
of other nations into our large cities that some parts seem like foreign lands to our native- 
born inhabitants. In New York and Philadelphia the foreign-born in the cities at large 
constitute thirty-four per cent, of the entire population, and in tenement districts they form 
sixty-two per cent. Those of foreign parentage constitute sixty-nine per cent, of the 
people at large, while they form ninety-two per cent, of the dwellers in the slums. One 
district of thirty-two acres in the Eleventh Ward of New York contains 315,008 inhabitants, 
that is, 986 persons to each acre. Few of the so-called homes have water distributed 
through the different apartments, hence bathing facilities are limited. Only 306 persons 
out of 255,033 have had the opportunity to bathe in the houses in which they live. 
We might continue to dwell upon these sad conditions which are found in these large 
cities, conditions which are conducive to physical disease, crime, and insanity, but this must 
suffice. ^ Under this heading, it remains for us to consider the State of California in refer- 
ence to its agricultural districts and large cities, and determine whether it is subject to hke 
conditions as found in the State of New York, only in a less degree. California has nine 
cities with a population each of over 10,000 inhabitants. These cities have a population 
in the aggregate of at least 500,000, and which constitute five twelfths of the population of 
the State, according to the census of 1890. California has also large holdings of many 
thousands of acres of land, untilled and practically uninhabited. Much of the land that 
is under cultivation is tilled in such large bodies, that frequently twenty-five and fifty 
thousand acres in grain may be found under the control and ownership of one individual. 
While these conditions remain unchanged, while five twelfths of the entire population are 
massed in our cities, California will occupy a high rank among the States that are burdened 

* Arena, June, 1897, Professor W. I. Hull, Ph. B. 



CALIFORNIA AND THE INSANE. 103 

with the care of a large number of the insane. Any agency that may be instrumental in 
placing a portion of our cities' population upon these vacant lands, or that invites the 
healthful and strong to immigrate to this country to occupy these broad acres, will prove 
a public benefactor to the people of this State, and at the kjame time prove to be an 
important factor in the reduction of our present high rate of insanity as compared with 
our population. 

CALIFORNIA AS A SANITARIUM, AND ITS EFFECT ON INSANITY. 

Fourth — A State which has earned a reputation for the excellency of its climate in 
ameliorating or assisting in the cure of a certain class of diseases is liable to have its insane 
increase, and for the reason that the importation among its inhabitants of persons who are 
suffering from disease of any kind, often indirectly paves the way for mental unsoundness. 
The position taken in the discussion of this part of our subject is to the effect that insanity 
is only a symptom of a diseased, degenerated, or deranged condition of the body; and 
that all other conditions being equal, those who are suffering from bodily disease, degener- 
ation, or derangement are more liable to be afflicted with insanity. 

California has achieved the reputation of being one of the great health resorts of the 
world. Individuals suffering from all forms of diseases are coming here in the endeavor to 
regain their lost health. Many of them have passed the point where medical skill, climatic 
surroundings, or anything else that may be utilized for the alleviation of human sufferings, 
can be of any avail. Physicians who should know better advise the removal of hundreds 
of such invalids to California. But where in California ? Any climate, from the frozen 
North to that of the sunny South, may be found in California; still this State is pointed out 
as the Italy of America to these unfortunate sufferers, and friends acting under such advice, 
ignorant of the result and with an anxiety beyond expression, hasten to this supposed cure-all 
with their sick friends, only, in many instances, to be disappointed. That a properly selected 
portion of this State, with the climatic influences found in the part selected, will prove of 
benefit to properly chosen cases, all are willing to admit; but to send such invalids indis- 
criminately to this State, without giving instructions where or in what locality they shall 
abide, frequently works a great hardship to the invalid and is manifestly a detriment to the 
State and its inhabitants. 

TUBERCULOSIS, 

Many consumptives are coming to California every year. Every such individual is 
suffering from bodily disease, and as before stated, insanity is only a symptom of bodily 
disease, degeneration, or derangement, and hence among this class of persons we should 
expect a high percentage of insanity. It has been estimated by different observers that 
about fifty per cent, of all deaths in asylums are from tuberculosis, and Schroeder Van der 
Kolk was of the opinion that " hereditary predisposition to tuberculosis might develop 
into insanity, and on the other hand, that insanity might predispose to consumption." 
Be that as it may, several writers on insanity have taken notice of the apparent connection 
existing between the two conditions, and have considered them to be markedly more than 
accidental. 

Burrows, Ellis, Friedereich, Schroeder Van der Kolk, Skae, Clouston, Biaute, and 
Ball, have written more or less upon this subject, and have clearly shown that lung 
diseases, and tuberculosis in particular, have a marked influence on disorders of the mind. 
While the immediate immigration and presence of these unfortunate people is a menace to 
the inhabitants of this State, as contributing to the increase of our insane population, still 
it is to the future that we must look for the most dire results. That tuberculosis is con- 
tagious, there can, with our present knowledge of the disease, be scarcely a doubt; and as 
an evidence that this is so, certain locations on the shore of Southern France once contained 
a population which could boast of possessing the best of health ; but after this beautiful 
country had become a resort for people suffering from tuberculosis, rapidly the once 
healthy, and consequently happy, inhabitants became affected by the same disease 
Through the inherited predisposition to tuberculosis which such persons transmit to their 
offspring, coupled with the contagion which is ever present in their midst, these people are 
rapidly becoming a community of invalids. If a halt could be called at once in the 
further reception of these defectives, if the diseased could be segregated from the healthy, 



I04 CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 

and if a strict quarantine could be established, it would take generations to undo the evil 
results that have been introduced among this people in an exceedingly short period of 
time. The extensive introduction of tuberculosis into this State by those coming here to 
find relief, has already been felt through its immediate effects in raising the percentage of 
the insane, but what the future may hold in store for the inhabitants of California, in the 
way of degeneracy and disease, and which has had its beginning in this kind of immi- 
gration, can only be foretold by making a careful examination into the deplorable results 
following the introduction of tuberculosis into other localities having a reputation for 
the excellence of their climate. 

NARCOMANIA. 

This term relates tc the excessive use of narcotic drugs, especially opium, or any of its 
alcoloids, and cocaine, and that its habitual and excessive use has reached such a point 
that the individual is no longer able, unaided, to control his desire for the drug. 

While every State in the Union has its devotees to this ruinous habit, California 
probably above all other places contains the greatest number. Its use is indulged in by 
a certain portion of all classes of society, but especially may its slaves be found in the slums 
of our larger cities. Had the Orientals in their advent in this State deliberately planned to 
plant a withering curse in the midst of our population, they could not have succeeded better 
than when they insidiously introduced the opium habit. When once the habit is permanently 
acquired, it destroys all the ennobling characteristics of the individual, makes him a liar, 
and usually a vagabond. These degenerates increase the ratio of our insane to the total 
number of inhabitants. They are entailing, through the laws of heredity, a curse of 
physical degeneracy, nervous instability, and mental unsoundness upon future generations, 
the magnitude of which it is impossible to determine. 

In closing, I would say to the reader who may do me the honor to consider this article, 
that I have endeavored to point out some of the reasons why California has apparently 
such a large number of insane when compared with its population. The number of 
insane, however, that a State may be caring for at any given period is one thing, and the 
number actually committed during the same period is quite another. Thus, during the 
year 1886 there was one insane person committed to our State hospitals for every 1259 
that were sane; while during the year 1896 there was one insane person committed for 
every 1251 that were sane. With this showing it is evident that the ratio of the insane 
committed to the entire population in 1896 was only eight in excess of those committed 
in 1886. 

As long as it appears that insanity is but slightly increasing from decade to decade, as 
shown by comparing the commitments of 1886 and 1896, and as compared with the 
increase of population during the same time, the present condition is certainly not one to 
cause great uneasiness. It is only when the causes of insanity, as discussed in this article, 
are considered that we may be apprehensive for the future. 

I wish now to state most emphatically that in my opinion no individual who is the 
possessor of health and a good constitution, which health implies, need fear to make Cali- 
fornia his future home. Such an individual will be in no more danger of becoming insane 
in this State than in any other, but if through the varying vicissitudes of life such a 
misfortune should obtain, then in no land upon the face of the earth can he find a more 
humane and kindlier care and treatment, than wi:l be extended to him by the State of 
California. 

"The birds 'mid the blossoms unceasingly sing, 
In the joy and the gladness which flowers will bring, 
That never cease blooming at all." 



^•4iS«j/'^' 




THE LICK OBSERVATORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 

By Dr. Edward S. Holden. 



JAMES Lick, who gave to the world the Lick Observatory, was born in Fredricksburg, 
Pennsylvania, on August 25, 1796, and died in San Francisco on October i, 1876. By 
a deed of trust, made in 1875, he devoted his whole fortune (aggregating $3,000,000) 
to public uses. His trustees were directed to expend, for a monument to Francis Scott Key, 
the author of " The Star Spangled Banner," the sum of $60,000 (this statute is in Golden 
Gate Park); for statuary emblematic of the history of California, $100,000 (the group is 
in front of the San Francisco City Hall); for a Home for Old Ladies in San Francisco, 
$100,000; for free baths in the same city, $150,000; for a manual training school for the 
boys and girls of San Francisco, $540,000; besides important gifts to the California Academy 
of Sciences, to the Society of California Pioneers, etc. 

The gift by which he will be best remembered, and in a high sense his most useful 
endowment, is that of the Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton. To this he gave the sum 
of $700,000, and he prescribed three conditions: First, that the new observatory should 
contain the most powerful telescope of the world; second, that the endowment fund should 
be made "useful in promoting science" (/. e. that the observatory should be one of 
research and discovery), and lastly, that it should be the Lick Astronomical Department of 
the University of California (the State University). 

At the time his gift was made the largest refracting telescope in the world was the 
twenty-six- inch equatorial of the National Observatory at Washington. It was a matter 
of doubt whether this could be greatly surpassed, owing to the difficulty of procuring discs 
of glass of great size. The Lick telescope, mounted in 1887, has a clear aperture of 
thirty-six inches. From 1887 to 1897 it was by far the most powerful telescope in the 
world. Its successful construction solved a number of problems, and many other large 
equatorials have been made and mounted of late years (Chicago, Vienna, St. Petersburg, 
Paris, Greenwich, Nice, etc.). The Chicago telescope, mounted in May, 1897, is con- 
structed on practically identical plans, by the same makers, and it has a clear opening of 
forty inches, four inches larger than the Lick telescope. 

Great instruments of this class require a serene and quiet air in order that they may do 
their best work. In this respect the Lick telescope is unrivalled. It stands on the very 
summit of Mount Hamilton (4209 feet in height) in the Mount Diablo Range, twenty-six 
miles by road (east) from San Jose. From May till November the days and nights are 
clear, and during the whole summer the air is quiet; the stars do not twinkle; the highest 
magnifying powers can be employed. No one of the observatories east of the Sierra 
Nevada has such advantages; and all large telescopes there situated are more or less handi- 
capped in this regard. The Lick Observatory was one of the very first "mountain" 
observatories to be constructed, and here, again, it has been the parent and exemplar of a 
large number of such establishments founded in late years. All the problems presented by 
snch a situation have been successfully solved here, and life is as thoroughly organized at 
Mount Hamilton as in a city. It should be remembered that the little community at the 
summit has every want that the largest city can feel. It must have good roads, light, 
power, heat, food, water, shelter, workshops, libraries, besides its special apparatus and 
appliances. It is, in short, a little astronomical city, placed on the summit of a mountain, 
and devoted to one special aim — the increase of our knowledge of the stars. 

The Lick Observatory has assumed another function of importance in addition, 
namely, the diffusion of such knowledge in the community. On every Saturday night, 
from seven o'clock, its doors are thrown open to the public, and all are encouraged 
to come to see for themselves, through the telescopes the planets and stars of which 
they may have read. On every week-day, also, the stages bring visitors who remain for an 
hour or more, who are shown through the buildings, and to whom the workings of the 
apparatus are explained. More than 50,000 persons have visited Mount Hamilton since it 



THE LICK OBSERVATORY. 107 

was opened for work, and every one of them has gone away with a clearer idea of the 
objects and methods of modern science. 

The regulations established by the Regents of the University for visitors are as 
follows : — 

" Visitors will be received at the Lick Observatory during office hours, whenever any of the 
astronomers are present. 

" Regular nights in each month, not exceeding one per week, shall be set apart for the recep- 
tion of visitors, except during inclement weather, and visitors will be received on these nights between 
certain hours, and at no other times. 

" The observatory buildings will be open to visitors during office hours, every day in the year. 
Upon their arrival visitors will please go at once to the visitors' room and register their names. 

"An hour or so can be profitably occupied in viewing the different instruments, and the rest of 
the stay can be well spent in walks to the various reservoirs, from which magnificent views of the 
surrounding country can be had. At least an hour and a half of daylight should be allowed for the 
drive from the Summit to Smith Creek. There are no hotel accommodations at the Summit. 

" For the present visitors will be received at the observatory to look through the great telescope, 
every Saturday night, between the hours of seven and ten, and at these times only. 

" Whenever the work of the observatory will allow, other telescopes will also be put at the dis- 
position of visitors on Saturdays, between the same hours (only). 

"At ten p M. the observatory will be closed to visitors, who should provide their own convey- 
ance to Smith Creek, as there is no way of lodging them on the mountain." 

The Lick Observatory is, by Mr. Lick's deed, a department of the State University. 
As such, it has always encouraged the presence of students of mature age, who are received 
on the footing of assistants. When suitable provision is made for Fellowships in Astronomy 
the observatory will be able to attract the best students of the whole country. Under- 
graduate students are given a thorough course of instruction at the Students' observatory, 
Berkeley. 

Mr. Lick, in August, 1875, selected Mount Hamilton, in Santa Clara County, as a 
site for the observatory. Land for the site (1350 acres) was granted by Act of Congress 
June 7, 1876; 149 acres additional were purchased by Mr. Lick. The north half of sec- 
tion sixteen of the township was granted to the University, for the use of the observatory, 
by the Legislature of California in 1888. This land (320 acres) is continuous with the 
grant from the United States. Congress also granted, in 1892, an additional tract of 680 
acres, making the total area of the reservation about 2581 acres. A road to the summit 
of Mount Hamilton, 4209 feet above the sea, was built by Santa Clara County, at a cost oi 
about $78,000, in the year 1876. 

It is hoped that the State will establish a forestry station on section sixteen, above 
mentioned. 

The observatory buildings are very simple, solid, and well suited to their uses. The 
great thirty-six inch refractor is unsurpassed in excellence. The gift of a three-foot reflector, 
one of the largest and finest in the world, by Edward Crossley, lately M. P. for Halifax, 
England, has added a companion telescope of almost equal power. It is not likely that 
any observatory now planned will have an equipment more effective than that of the Lick 
Observatory in its admirable situation. 

Other smaller instruments are provided, each suited to its especial work. Among 
them may be named: — 

The twelve-inch equatorial (used for the observation of the positions of comets, the 
measurement of double stars, etc., etc.). 

The six and a half-inch meridian circle (used to determine the positions of stars and 
planets). 

The six and a half-inch comet-seeker (used for the discovery of comets, etc. Four- 
teen comets have been discovered at Mount Hamilton since 1888). 

The five-inch photo-heliograph (used to make daily photographs of the sun and sun- 
spots). 

The five-inch Crocker telescopes (a pair of effective photographic portrait lenses used 
to make photographs of comets, nebulae, the Milky Way, etc.). 

The five-inch Floyd equatorial (used to photograph and also to observe with the eye). 

The four- inch transit instrument (used to determine time, latitude, etc.). 



io8 CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 

These instrumentss require a large number of subsidiary pieces of apparatus — a few of 
which may be mentioned: — 

The Mills spectroscope (used with the great telescope to photograph the spectra of stars). 

The Bruce spectroscope (to be used with the Crossley reflector for the same 
purpose). 

The Bruce photometers (to be used with the equatorials to measure the brightness of 
the stars). 

The seismonmeters (to record the circumstances of earthquake shocks and 
tremors). . 

Many of these pieces of apparatus have been presented by friends of the observatory — 
Messrs. D. O. Mills, C. F. Crocker, Edward Crossley, Miss Catherine Wolfe Bruce, Miss 
Floyd, and others. 

The instruments of the Observatory have cost about $112,000; its buildings, etc., 
some $498,000. The total cost of the establishment (up to 1888) was $610,000. The 
balance of Mr. Lick's gift, $90,000, is invested as an endowment fund. The interest on 
this sum is entirely inadequate for the support of the institution, and the deficiency is made 
up, so far as is practicable, from the University income. The Lick Observatory is 
magnificently equipped but it is insufficiently endowed. Its chief wants are the establish- 
ment of a number of Fellowships in Astronomy, and the provision of a special library 
fund. In our isolated situation the need of a large professional library is sorely felt. 
There is, at present, no means to publish the observations which have been amassed. 

It is quite impossible in the present place, to speak of the scientific work of the 
Observatory in any detailed way. During the nine years of its existence the Observatory 
has taken a foremost place among the great observatories of the world. Although its 
income is scarcely a third of that of the great observatories of Greenwich, Paris, and St. 
Petersburg, and although its scientific staff has never consisted of more than eight persons 
as against thiry to fifty observers in those establishments, yet its activity has been extended 
over many fields and its researches in each field have been scholarly and thorough, and 
its discoveries of high interest and value. 

Through the generosity of a friend of the Observatory, Mr. W. W. Law of New 
York City, the publication of a large map of the Moon in some sixty sheets, from nega- 
tives taken with the great telescope, is now in progress. Other photographic plates of 
the Milky Way, Comets, etc., are to be issued also. 

The regular publications of the Observatory are usually technical in character and are 
not for general distribution. We are often asked how those interested in Astronomy who 
are not professionals, can keep themselves informed of the progress of the Science at 
Mount Hamilton and elsewhere. This may very well be done by joining the Astronomical 
Society of the Pacific and receiving its journal. 

Each issue of the publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific contains 
Notices from the Lick Observatory, which are brief accounts of the scientific work of the 
institution, prepared by the astronomers. Especial pains are taken to put these accounts 
into a simple and popular form. The history of the Observatory can be followed from 
month to month in these publications. 

The foregoing very brief account will give an idea of the present state and work of 
the Lick Observatory. All of it is the outcome of the gift of Mr. Lick to the citizens of 
his adopted State. Of all his gifts his Observatory was undoubtedly nearest to his 
heart, and it will do more than any other to preserve his memory. 

I think that if he were living he would be satisfied with the result. No effort has been 
spared on the part of each person connected with the Observatory — Trustees, Regents, 
astronomers, employees— to carry out its objects faithfully and well, and to make it the first 
observatory of the world. 




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THE TIDAL RESERVOIR OP THE GOLDEN GATE. 



AN FRANCISCO 
By Edwin H. Clough. 



THE GOLDEN GATE. 



The air is chill, and the day grows late, 

And the clouds come in through the Golden 
Gale; 

Phantom fleets they seem to me, from a shore- 
less and unsounded sea; 

Their shadowy spars and misty sails, 

Unshattered, have weathered a thousand gales: 

Slow wheeling, lo! in squadrons gray, 

They part, and hasten along the bay^ 

Each to its anchorage finding way. 

Where the hills of Sausalito swell, 

Many in gloom may shelter well; 

And others— behold!— unchallenged pass 

By the silent guns of Alcatraz; 

No greetmgs of thunder and flame exchange 

The armed isle and the cruisers strange. 

Their meteor flags, so widely blown, 

Were blazoned in a land unknown; 

So, charmed from war, or wind, or tide, 

Along the quiet wave they glide. 



J- 



What bear these ships? what news, what freight 
Do they bring us through the Golden Gate? 

The air is chill, and the day grows late, 

And the clouds come in through the Golden 

Gate, 
Freighted with sorrow, heavy with woe; 
But these shapes that cluster, dark and low. 
To-morrow shall be all aglow! 
In the biaze of the combing morn these mists, 
Whose weight my heart in vain resists, 
Will brighten and shine and soar to heaven 
In thin, white robes, like souls forgiven; 
For heaven is kind, and everything, 
As well as a winter, has a spring. 
So, praise to God! who brings the day. 
That shines our regrets and fears away; 
For the blessed morn I can watch and wait, 
While the clouds come in through the Golden 

Gate. — Edward Pollock. 



THE importance of a seaport in its relations with the commerce of the world is 
indicated by the registered tonnage entered at its Custom House. During 1896 
the net tonnage entered at the San Francisco Custom House, from foreign and 
Atlantic ports, was 1,380,787 tons; the movement outward aggregated 1,299,722 tons. 
This tonnage was carried by 963 vessels, of which 625 were sail and 338 steam. The 
saihng vessels carried 768,187 tons, and the steam craft carried 612,580 tons. The total 



SAN FRANCISCO. in 

sail tonnage, arrivals and departures combined, was 1,451,790 tons, and 1,219,699 tons 
steam tonnage, the number of vessels being 1199 sailing and 699 steamers. 

During the year the flag of every nation on earth fluttered in the winds that rufile the 
^surface of San Francisco's landlocked bay. Clippers, Clyde-built, from the docks of 
Liverpool; "lime-juicers," jute-laden, many days out from Calcutta; sturdy, old-fashioned 
packets from Hamburg; "long, low, rakish" craft from the Mediterranean; brigs and 
barkentines, built on queer Hues and manned by queer little brown men of Japan; barna- 
cled hulks from Java, their holds stowed with coffee; swift schooner-rigged traders from 
the south seas; coastwise tramps, familiar with every port of the Pacific littoral, from 
Valparaiso to Sitka; colliers from Australia and British Columbia; whalers from the frozen 
north; merchantmen from the tropic south; tea caddies from Shanghai; and reformed 
pirates from Rangoon — all these anchored in the stream, discharging merchandise valued 
at $36,414,862. 

The exports of merchandise by sea to foreign ports from San Francisco during 1896 
amounted to $40,433,745, and the value of shipments to New York and other Atlantic 
ports added $3,080, 251 more, making a total export record of $43,513,996. This total 
was $10,249, 135 more than was credited to 1895. 

The treasure shipments from San Francisco by sea during 1896 aggregated $15,510,- 
829, and by rail, $15,233,997, a total export amounting to $30,744,826. The sea 
shipments of treasure were destined for Hongkong ($6,413,174); Shanghai ($4,587,521); 
Bombay ($35,000); Japan ($3,003,071); Honolulu ($1,112,370); Central America ($285,- 
025); Mexico ($19,266); Singapore ($50,000); Tahiti ($4,752); Fanning Island ($500); 
Samoa ($150). The character of these shipments included silver bullion, $5,909,008, 
Mexican dollars, $8,212,386; gold coin, $1,133,901; silver coin, $97,991; gold dust, 
$4,656; nickels, $1,900; currency, $415; Chilian dollars, $7,027; Peruvian dollars, 
$143-350; gold bullion, $195. 

The poets have never given us accurate figures concerning "the wealth of Ormus or 
of Ind," and it is therefore safe to assert that the following tabulated statement of 
treasure shipments from the port of San Francisco will compare opulently with similar 
export from the vague regions of Ophir and Golconda: — 

1885 $18,804,749 1892 114,576,578 

1886 18,209,881 1893 . 13,052,942 

1887 15,413,807 1894 13.978,869 

1888 16,547,230 1895 18,799,671 

1889 20,265,857 1896 15,510,829 

1890 8,667,380 

1891 9,074,306 Total 1181,902,099 

The combined exports, treasure and merchandise, exclusive of merchandise by over- 
land railroads, during the past three years were as follows: — 

Values. 1896. 1895. 1894. 

Merchandise $43,513,996 |33 264,861 126,410,672 

Treasure 30,744,826 35,953,o94 22,650,449 



Totals $74,258,822 $69,217,955 $49,061,121 

Increase in 1896 5,040,867 

The treasure shipment of 1896 includes $15,233,997 overland by express, $6,585,861 
of which was in coin, $42,461 in bullion, and $8,605,675 in currency. 

During the same years the combined values of imports of merchandise and treasure 
from foreign countries were as follows: — 

Values. 1896. 1895. 1894. 

Merchandise . . . • $36,414,862 $38,925,607 $38,514,686 

Treasure 11,864,424 3,434,297 3,572,418 



Totals $48,279,286 $42,359,904 $42,087,104 

The commercial status of this metropolis is emphasized by the reports of the Clearing 
House, which, for 1896, showed transactions amounting to $683,229,599. These figures 
in comparison with $692,079,240 clearings for 1895, are the business man's visible evidence 
of the universal stringency. But there were many "years of unexampled prosperity" 



112 CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 

for San Francisco before the "shrinkage," as may be adduced from the fact that since the 
date of organization of the Clearing House, March, 1876, the total clearings amounted to 
$3,159,528,975. The largest amount in this record was for the year 1891, when the 
clearings aggregated $892,426,713. 

THE GOLDEN GATE. 

It has always been a source of wonderment to the student of local history that Sir 
Francis Drake, eminent buccaneer and forthright freebooter, should have sailed past the 
Golden Gate, imagining that he was following the trend of an unbroken coast. That the 
pillaging explorer anchored his ' ' Golden Hind ' ' in the open roadstead that has since borne 
his name, and remained there nearly two months without knowledge that one of the finest 
harbors in the world lay on the other side of the range of hills to leeward of his vessel, 
only increases the wonderment of those who have never approached the Californian coast 
from the sea. Navigators, however, are not surprised that Drake missed the harbor 
entrance and they will aver that the discovery of the bay of San Francisco from the land- 
ward, as it was discovered by Portala, was more probable than the chance of a sailor to 
observe an opening in the coast only two and one half miles wide at the entrance of a 
narrow channel four miles long. 

The outer entrance of the harbor is designated by a line drawn between Point Lobos 
on the south and Point Bonita on the north, the one being the northwestern extremity of 
the peninsula of San Francisco, and the other marking the southwestern coast of Marin 
County. Fort Point and Lime Point, headlands on either shore of the channel, which 
narrows here to a distance of one and one eighth miles, form the eastern port of what may 
be termed the vestibule of the Golden Gate. Westward from the outer entrance is the 
bar of the harbor. From Point Lobos to the western arc of this bar is a distance of six 
miles. From the foot of Market street to the Golden Gate, between Point Bonita and Point 
Lobos, is eight miles, and a ship outward bound from the port of San Francisco sails 
fourteen miles before she crosses the bar and dismisses her pilot. The depth of water on the 
bar is five and one half fathoms. Between Fort Point and Lime Point, eight miles eastward 
from the bar, the depth is sixty-five fathoms. One mile westward from this chasm the 
soundings show thirty-two fathoms, and one mile eastward the ocean floor is forty fathoms 
at low water. If Telegraph Hill were dumped into this hole, it would not impede naviga- 
tion, for there would still be twenty-four fathoms of water between the top of the hill and 
the surface of the channel. And it would require a fifteen fathom line to catch rock-cod 
lurking in the dome of the Spreckels building, if that aspiring structure were deposited in 
the Golden Gate at this point. Here the natural order is reversed, and the tide flows with 
greater velocity on the bottom of the channel than it does at the surface. If this water were 
precipitated from a similar altitude, and in similar quantity over a terrestrial cliff, it would 
outroar Niagara. 

THE HARBOR. 

From tide water at Alviso, the southern extremity of San Francisco Bay, to the mouth 
of the Sacramento River, where that stream empties into Suisun Bay, through a navigable 
channel, the linear distance is eighty-three miles. This distance may be best exemplified 
for descriptive purposes in the following manner: — 

From the foot of Market street south to Alviso . 35 miles. 

From the foot of Market street north to San Pablo Bay 13 miles, 

(Between Point San Pedro and Point San Pablo.) 

From San Pablo Bay north to the Straits of Carquinez 12 miles. 

(To a point opposite Mare Island.) 

From Carquinez Straits to the entrance of Suisun Bay 7 miles. 

(Between Army Point and Suisun Point.) 
From Suisun Bay to the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers 16 miles. 

Length of Bay, with tributaries 83 miles. 

Width of Bay between Baden and the eastern shore 12^ miles. 

Width of lower Bay between Point Avesadero (Hunter's Point) and the Ala- 
meda shore 5^ miles. 



SAN FRAN CISCO. 



113 



\ Width of the Bay from foot of Market street to Oakland shore (Ferry route). 4^ miles. 
Width of San Pablo Bay — a circle swinging to the northward from Point Pinole 

would inscribe an arc with a radius of 8 miles. 

Width of Suisun Bay from Grizzly Point to the north shore 6% miles. 

From Point Pinole across clear water (San Pablo Bay) to Petaluma Point 9^ miles. 

From the foot of Market street to Benicia 30 miles. 

(Head of navigation for deep-water vessels.) 

From the foot of Market street to Vallejo 28 miles. 

(Opposite Mare Island Navy Yard.) 
Air-line distances. — From the foot of <, Market street to the summit of Mt. Diablo 

miles. From th^ 
2592 feet), north- 



(altitude 3700 feet), due east, in Contra 
foot of Market street to the summit of Mt. 
west, in Marin County, 14 miles. From 
of Mt. Montara (altitude 2000 feet), in 

The high-water area of San Fran- 
the Straits of Carquinez to Army Point, 
low-water area of the same bays is 390 
of Suisun Bay from Army Point to 
is 49-9 square miles, and the low 
The mean tide- water area of San 

The currents of the bay flow 
knots an hour, according to the 
strongest tide always flows at 

The islands of the bay are: 
(Yerba Buena), Alcatraz, Red 
Islands, Two Brothers, Two 
The largest of these is Angel 
San Francisco, and containing 
above the level of the Bay at 
ries of blue and brown sand- 
developed upon its surface, 
is the quarantine sta- 

Goat Island is a 
mark, three miles 
feet high, and con- 
acres. The govern- 
a lighthouse outfitting 
tion, and magazine on 

Alcatraz is a for- 
one mile north of the 
acres, at an elevation 
water. The island is 
fractory soldiers of the 
The light on this 
nineteen miles at sea. 

San Francisco, 
appropriate personifi- 
to a beautiful woman 




Costa County, 26)^ 
Tamalpaii: (altitude 
the foot of Market street to the summit 
San Mateo County, 17 miles, 
cisco and San Pablo Bays,' including 
is 414.8 square (statute) miles. The 
square miles. The high-water area 
the mouth of the Sacramento River 
water area is 41 square miles. 
Francisco Bay is 448 square miles, 
at the rate of from one to four 
condition of the tide; and the 
the Golden Gate. 
Angel Island, Goat Island 
Rock, Brooks Island, Marin 
Sisters, and Mare Island. 
Island, three miles north of 
600 acres. It is 760 feet 
its highest point, and quar- 
stone have been partially 
It is a military post, and 
tion for the port, 
conspicuous land- 
east of the city, 340 
taining about 300 
ment has established 
station, a torpedo sta- 
the island. 

tified station, about 
city, containing thirty 
of 140 feet above low 
also a prison for re- 
United States army, 
island can be seen 



DOME OI>- CITY HALL, SAN FRANCISCO. 



for lack of a more 
cation, maybelikened 
gazing seaward from 
the" shelter of a pavilion of purple and gold, the tapestried walls of which are shot with 
"old romance." At her feet throbs sixty-eight million miles of ocean, from shore to 
shore of two continents; within the sweep of her arm lies the fairest region on the face of 
the earth. She arose like an exhalation from the reek of contending civilizations; and 
when the gold-seeking Saxon had displaced the pastoral Latin, she was enthroned proudly 
on her seven hills, a queen of cities. ^ , „ . . 

So much for the poesy of the metropolitan environment. Thenceforth Satire sings in 
degenerate dithyrambs of "skirts bedraggled in the mire of poHtics"; of "looting greed 
ravishing fairest jewels from the bosom of this 'queen of cities' " ; of " reckless waste and 
taxes high, to sate the voracity of the municipal contractor and the official feeding raven- 
ously at the public crib." All of which is but cynic expression in protest of the fact that 



114 CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 

the people of San Francisco were paying, in 1896, a tax amounting to 11.56)^ for the 
support of their city and county government, which, in addition to the State tax of 68}^ 
cents, compelled the payment of $2.25 for the privilege of owning $100 worth of property 
in this community. It was contended, with querulous insistence, that even "the glorious 
climate" and " the material advantages resulting from a Californian citizenship" did not 
compensate for the labor of bearing the burden of that citizenship imposed by tax-eating 
officials and the contractor, who goeth about seeking what he may devour. 

There were optimistic dreamers arguing for civic reform and an economical adminis- 
tration of the city government, who asserted that one dollar levied on each $100 worth of 
assessable property was amply sufficient for all necessary municipal purposes. But the tax- 
eater laughed such argument to the scorn it deserved, and asked with bitter contempt of 
the taxpayer's plea, how it would be possible for a city assessed on property valued at 
$357,586,126 to avoid an " estimated expenditure " of at least $5,315,580, balancing his 
"estimate" with $3,861,000 to be derived from taxation and $1,454,580 from other 
sources. 

However, the "dreamer's " voice prevailed, for it began to cry out menacingly, and 
the taxeaterwas finally forced to levy a tax of only 96.92 on each $100 valuation, which, 
added to the State tax of 42.9 cents, made a total levy of $1.3982. 

It is necessary that the stranger within the Golden Gate should be informed of the 
truth concerning our municipal affairs, to the end that he may not accuse us of inducing 
him, by false pretense, to take up his abode with us. It is well that the stranger afore- 
said should know the evils that beset the community as well as the benefits we derive from 
natural and acquired advantages, and the profit we count upon in the proper manipulation 
of those advantages. 

It is only half the story to tell of a tax rate reasonable enough to satisfy any ordinary 
" civic reformer." The sequel is contained in the fact that while the taxpayer slept peace- 
fully, undisturbed by haunting visions of enormous tax bills, the taxeater continued to 
gnaw greedily upon the municipal bone. The taxes had been reduced — true, but the 
expense of maintaining the city government had not receded. And now comes the 
Finance Committee of the Board of Supervisors bewailing a "shortage." Especially 
"short" is the General Fund — nearly $100,000 — and while the School Department had 
about $40,000 surplus in its fund at the beginning of the fiscal year, it is now asserted that 
the apportionment was not adequate, and that there are claims against the department for 
"back salaries" amounting to $115,500. Mayor Phelan, at a recent meeting of the 
Finance Committee, hinted at the size of the municipal bung-hole, when he suggested that 
many of the employees of the various departments might be dispensed with, directing 
specific attention to the methods of the County Clerk, and those of his deputies who do 
nothing aside from drawing their salaries, conditions antagonistic to the Clerk's express 
pledge to conduct his office at a monthly expense of not more than $6000. 

It is regarded as a species of treason to offer adverse criticism of the public schools 
and the methods of their management. Under the (Egis of the public school system, 
grandiloquently designated "the palladium of our liberties," many a fraud is perpetrated 
upon the citizen of the Republic. It is a demonstrated fact that the citizen of the 
Republic will pay, without, a murmur, endrmouS sums to support the national system of 
education, when he would protest to the verge of riot if ailed upon to give similar amounts 
for the maintenance of any other branch of the government. He considers it his highest 
and most patriotic duty to strengthen, by every means in his power, the foundations of the 
structure that he has erected for the mental, moral, and physical betterment of his children, 
and it is upon this sentiment that the designing schemer occasionally works for his personal 
profit — -it is upon the presumption that the citizen will continue to submit to extortion on 
behalf of his beloved school system that the baser elements of local politics advantage 
themselves. 

The latest school census for San Francisco enumerated 74,840 children of school age 
in the city. Of this number, it was found 18,427 did not attend any school. The 
parochial schools of the Cathohc Church absorlDed 6491 and other schools contained 
about 2000 more, leaving during 1897-8, a public school enrollment of about 47,000. 
To teach these children the School Department is asking the people to pay $1,466,458.87, 
$962,080 of which is scheduled as teachers' salaries; $115,500, teachers' unpaid salaries, 
s^^d $334,453.15, supplies, books, stationery, and repairs. In addition, the Board of 



SAN FRANCISCO. 



"5 



:ducation asks for $550,000 for "permanent improvements." In other words, it is 
advised by the San Francisco Board of Education that a tax per capita of $27.01 be levied 
for public education, based upon the total enumeration of children in the city; or $43 a 
year for the education of each child enrolled in the public schools. Without considering 
the fact that the people are suffering for lack of sufficient money to meet other expenses of 
living, and merely adducing the circumstance that the per capita expense of educating the 
enrolled pupils of the public schools of this city during 1896 was only $26.41, the fiscal 
absurdity of this proposition by the Board of Education looms as grotesque and incon- 
gruous as a jest at a funeral. It is only mentioned as an example of fine humor on the 
part of the educational junta of a big city. 

The following table will show how liberal San Francisco has been in the matter of 
public school education during the past ten years: — 

Fiscal Year. Appropriation. Enrollment. Fiscal Year. Appropriation. Enrollment. 

1886-7 I 781,400 43,311 1892-3 11,099,400 45,775 

1887-8 909,400 42,330 1893-4 1,009,400 44,349 

1888-9 919.400 42,626 1894-5 1,008,460 44,822 

1889-90 997,930 42,926 1895-6 1,009,480 45,435 

189Q-1 1,070,900 43,626 

1891-2 1,075,641 46,172 Total 19,881,411 

The teachers of San Francisco are better paid than those of any other city in the 
United States. The average salary of men teachers in the primary and grammar grades is 
$141.39 a month; and in the high schools, $157.08. The women teachers of the primary 
and grammar grades average $79.05 a month, and those teaching in the high schools 
receive $1 13.50. 

San Franciscans are proud of their Park. They delight to impress the stranger with 
the statistics of its dimensions and the magnitude of the labor that was requisite to reclaim 
its shifting sand dunes and compel the arid soil to furnish rich sustenance for arboreal 
products of every clime in the world. It is a congenial pastime to chaperon the visitor 
from the frozen East in the months of December or January through these valleys fra- 
grant with the scent of roses as fresh as any that grew when "the gardens of Gul " were 
in bloom; across acres of lawn, into the shadow of trees that perish outside of conserva- 
tories in other lands, along slopes where the wild deer browses and the buffalo munches 
his cud in bovine meditation, fancy free, past the aviary where the birds are twittering and 
caroling and where the gray squirrel chirps to the chipmunk; finally taking the wonder- 
stricken traveler to a high place called Strawberry Hill, there to feast his eyes on a prospect 
that cannot be equaled at that season in any zone the world about. 

It seems a profanation almost, to utter measurements and distances in the presence of 
all this beauty, but it is deemed a part of the cicerone' s duty to inform the stranger that 
the Park is three miles in length by the main drive to the ocean beach, and half a mile 
wide, and that it contains 1013 acres. And it would certainly be regarded as a sordid 
reflection upon the result of all this planning, development, laboring, and waiting, to be 
compelled to inform the stranger that this superb pleasure ground cost the people last year 
$302,146.80. It would be inadvisable, also, to mention this generous expenditure in the 
hearing of experts familiar with the cost of maintaining parks in other cities, for they might 
dampen the esthetic ardor of the native by declaring that climate had much to do with 
the success of gardening in California, and that $100,000 a year, or $150,000 at most, 
ought to be ample taxation at this stage of the development and growth of Golden Gate 
Park. They might argue that $193,100.55 was too much to charge to the construction 
account, and that $103,346.25 was an excessive amount for maintenance. But such 
criticism would be hotly resented by the loyal Californian who loves to pay liberally for a 
"public utility," that in private possession would cost the owner but half the price the 
tax-burdened citizen pays. 

These are salient features of preventable extravagances. It must be confessed that 
not all of the civic regime open to criticism has been alluded to, but enough has been 
recited to indicate that we of San Francisco are neither better nor worse than cities of the 
same class the world over. We are still struggling with the problem of municipal govern- 
ment in an incipient stage of development, and it is claimed that we are woefully handi- 
capped in the effort to better our condition by the lack of a charter intelligently framed to 
meet the exigencies of the occasion. There is a constant agitation in the direction of a 



ii6 CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 

more compact and efficient administration; and eventually, when public opinion has grown 
sturdier, and our experience has ripened our judgment, perhaps we shall be able to make 
a better showing. 

Another phase of San Francisco's generous regard for the needy is exemphfied in 
her care of the poor who are always with us, the weak, the helpless, the unfortunate, and 
the incompetent. It is estimated that the people of this city expend more than $2,000,000 
a year in charity. A community that puts its hand in its pocket to that extent on behalf 
of suffering humanity is not wholly bad, and it would necessitate the maintenance of a 
wider area of Tenderloin and a broader extent of Barbary Coast than San Francisco now 
possesses to offset the good that is being accomplished by our Associated Charities, our 
kindergartens, our church organizations, our benevolent orders and societies, our public 
rehef institutions, and our private alms-giving. As Uncle Toby's oath was blotted by the 
tears of the Recording Angel in the Chancery of Heaven, so, many of our sins of omission 
and commission may be palliated in the Court of Final Appeal by the mitigating circum- 
stance that we have "done unto the least of these" that which the first Christian said was 
vicarious hospitality to himself 

San Francisco is well provided with the equipment of a social civilization. We are 
not yet acutely cognizant of caste distinctions, and we have not classified ourselves into 
aristocracies and proletariats, but we tolerate a "four hundred," and we speak of the 
region south of Market street as the people of New York refer to the East Side and 
Cherry Hill. The mass of the community, however, averages with that of other cities in 
dignity and self-respect, and they go about their affairs of business and pleasure in demo- 
cratic disregard of mouldy grandsires and griffen- crested or drawn-and-quartered ancestry. 
Our clubs are not so exclusive that a gentleman who can pay his initiation and monthly 
dues may fear an excess of blackballs or rejection by the governors. Other organizations 
are hospitable to congenial spirits of every degree, provided, of course, that the applicant 
is a fit associate in common life. 

The women of San Francisco are the dominating element of society, as they are in 
every civilized community; and they are as aggressive as women of other cities in the 
promulgation of "doctrines," the "advancement" of "ideas," the advocacy of theories 
(practical and Utopian), and earnest effort to render the conditions better and the common 
understanding wiser than they found it. 

San Francisco is a cosmopoHtan city, and its moral tone cannot be justly gauged by 
the standard of a New England village or a city whose population traces its majority 
of ancestry back to the Puritan invasion. This cosmopolitanism will account, in a great 
measure, for the fact that the city derives a license revenue from the sale of liquor in 13,000 
places of public resort, classified as saloons, groceries, theaters, and restaurants, netting a 
revenue to the commonwealth of $273,000 a year. The fact that San Francisco is a sea- 
port on the verge of the world is another reason why the vicious element and vicious 
tendencies are somewhat prominent. A floating population of the class that comes to San 
Francisco is not hampered by exalted ideas of what constitutes strictly moral conduct. A 
watchful and efficient police, however, is our safeguard from this element, and actual crime 
is less prevalent here than in other cities contiguous to the highways of the world. 

San Francisco is a picturesque city. Its architecture is a novelty and a spectacle for 
the stranger, until he realizes that the habitations were built to fit the mild climate by a 
people who love the sunshine and begrudge the necessity of walling themselves in. As a 
consequence, the "bay window " is a feature of the residence streets, and the fronts of the 
majority of houses are without ornamentation to intercept the sunlight. The streets are 
not as well paved as they might be, but since the merchants insisted that they should be 
kept clean at a minimum of expense, the afternoon winds that prevail in the summer are 
not so disagreeably dusty as they were when the contractor "boused the job." 

The visitor to San Francisco will never tire of the magnificent distances that stretch 
away from the summits of the hills. He will thoroughly enjoy the ride on the cable lines 
that carry him to these outlooks, and he will appreciate the system that gives him a transfer 
to every conceivable point of interest in the city. He can ride from the foot of Market 
street to the ocean beach for a nickel if he does not elect to spend an hour in the Park e7i 
route. Or if he prefers to travel in the same direction by electricity he will find ready 
accommodation within easy distance of the central section of the city. On all these lines 
picturesque views may be secured and curious quarters of the town visited. 



SAN FRANCISCO. 



117 







Not the least interesting 
of these excursions will be 
to the Chinese quarter — a 
"trip" that every visitor to 
San Francisco feels in duty 
bound to endure, for it is not 
a pleasant j ourney , aside from 
the novelty of its sight-seeing 
elements. It must not be 
imagined that all the "hor 



rors" ascribed by romancing 
correspondents of sensational 
newspapers will be verified, 
even in a night tour of the 
quarter. Lepers are not 
in evidence, inveracious 
"guides" to the contrary 
notwithstanding. The last 
leper arrived from New York 
a year ago, and was promptly 
detected by the health offi- 
cers and removed to the Pest 
House. Neither will the vis- 



ii8 CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 

itor be piloted through ' ' underground labyrinths, reeking with filth and unspeakable 
odors." Cellars there are, noisome and odorous enough, but of "labyrinths" and 
"underground cities" there are none. These exist only in the " graphic accounts" of 
the imaginative newspaper men. There are 20.000 Chinamen in the district bounded by 
California, Pacific, Kearny, and Stockton streets, and it is safe to assume that 19,000 of 
these smoke opium. They smoke opium as the white man smokes tobacco, and every 
house is an " opium joint;" but the "tourist" will not find " hordes of white boys and 
girls in these dens hitting the pipe," as the same correspondent who imagined the 
"labyrinths" has depicted. The laws of California cannot prevent the smoking of opium 
in the smoker's house or lodging; but if he permits others to smoke there the law construes 
the action as a violation of the ordinance prohibiting ' ' the sale or giving away ' ' of the 
drug " to be smoked on the premises," and punishes the violator by the fine or imprison- 
ment prescribed as the penalty for misdemeanor. In consequence, the Chinese will not 
permit white men, boys, or girls to smoke in their houses. 

But if lepers and depraved whites are not among the "attractions" of the Chinese 
quarter of San Francisco, there is still much to be seen that will amply repay the curiosity 
of the stranger seasoned to the "slums" of Eastern cities. The temples, or "joss 
houses," the restaurants, the curio shops, the markets, the alleys, the lodging houses, the 
theaters, the missions, and the queer crannies of the district, are all interesting to people 
not famxiliar with them. It is certainly all very picturesque, but it is also very dirty, and 
one visit generally suffices. 

Besides the Chinese district there are other quaint sections of San Francisco, not so 
disagreeable. The Latin Quarter, skirting the southern and western slopes of Telegraph 
Hill, is replete with suggestion of the Levant and the Riviera — the mingling of Greek, 
Neapolitan, Syrian, Turk, Slavonian, and exiles from Bulgaria and Montenegro is a swart 
and tawny background to the cabaret type of Frenchman and the Mexican character 
resident in the Quarter. 

The water-front is another ' ' feature ' ' of San Francisco life that will repay a brief 
tour — the Italian fishermen, the stevedores, the 'longshoremen, the nondescript characters 
who haunt the seawall, the sailor boarding-house runners, the drift and flotsam of a peace- 
ful sea. 

The residence section on California-street Hill, Pacific Heights, and Van Ness avenue 
(the stateliest thoroughfare in the city) will give the stranger a better idea of the individual 
opulence of San Francisco's prosperous citizens than a volume of essays denouncing the 
rapacity of the " predatory rich." 

Market street, the promenade of San Francisco, is one of the notable streets of the 
world. Here the beauty and fashion of the town is on parade every pleasant afternoon, 
and along the " Rialto," between Kearny and Powell streets, the well-dressed throng is 
constantly moving, from early morning until midnight. 

San Francisco is a picturesque city; it is a healthful city. Living is cheap, whether 
you live in the hotels and boarding-houses or provide for your own home. It is a city 
that in times of prosperity is more prosperous than any other in the United States, and in 
seasons of depression sustains the strain of adverse fortune with more equanimity and 
personal comfort than other communities. It is a city with a splendid future. It is the 
metropolis of a rich empire, as yet but sparsely populated. Every possibility awaits the 
proper application of energy, industry, and intelligence; opportunity sits by the Golden 
Gate, and they are wise who seek it there. 



9<iuj-^i/f- Cl^-^^r^- 



No beautiful palace have I on the hill. 

No pictures to hang in the halls. 
But never a painter could match with his skill. 

The roses that bloom on my walls." 



AN ANALYSIS OF LAND VALUES. 



THERE is a tolerably defined series of sensations through which the stranger visiting California 
is reasonably expected to pass, more or less vividly, according to his tastes and tempera- 
ment. Recently, however, a new phase has been appreciated by those of investigative curiosity 
roused by an incongruity which is destined to become a serious feature unless shortly counteracted. 

Casual conversation with those whom the stranger meets has, unfortunately, the more probable 
effect of strengthening than of correcting the errors causing the incongruity. The real conditions 
inducing it do not accord with the conclusions commonly accepted by the people of the State; still 
less by a certain class of people outside of the State, who are much needed in California, and whose 
coming would be an incalculable benefit to all concerned, themselves most emphatically included. 
They will not come, however, so long as the existing erroneous impressions are accepted; hence the 
incongruity is deplorable. 

In every loyal Californian, the stranger finds a man proud as proverbial Lucifer of his State, 
boasting incessantly of her climate, her soil, her productions, her fish, her game and her minerals, 
in remunerative capacity unequaled anywhere on earth; all of which, so often claimed and proven, 
must forsooth be true. It is true. The law allows it and the court awards it. 

Then the stranger catches a glimpse behind the scenes and discovers those same men secretly 
communing with anxious faces, and with vindictive frowns condemning one thing or another, accord 
ing to their personal convictions or prejudices, or the inordinate obstinacy of inanimate things in 
general, for that California is dead, business dull, progress, if any, in the wrong direction, develop- 
ment of the marvelous resources at a comparative standstill, and goodness knows what else that is 
undesirable, disagreeable, and discouraging. 

Allowing for natural exaggeration on both sides, one condition is as evident as the other — evident 
from. San Francisco to the remotest corner of the Utopian State. The halcyon paradise is real, 
but no less real is the dangerous lethargy, and the incongruity is enough to excite a very moder- 
ately aggressive curiosity. 

Miles and miles of phenomenally fertile valleys, where no snow ever falls and frosts are 
exceptional, with evergreen foothills, producing everything from the apple, pear, and peach to the 
orange, olive, and fig, with intermediate grapes, in quality and quantity unequaled, tend to rouse 
such enthusiasm that one notes with astonishment the lack of small farms, and can hardly believe 
that there is practically no demand for land, in limited allotments, or any evidence of immigration of 
that most desirable class of citizens known as small farmers. 

How many men live in frigid economy, delving in soil that has been the death of their fathers 
and grandfathers, and that is uselessly frozen for six months in the year, working furiously through 
the broiling heat and drought of midsummer to provide for keeping themselves and their stock 
uncomfortably alive from the fall until another spring. 

That veteran agricultural war horse, the Hon. Jeremiah Rusk, after his recent visit to California, 
recorded the following opinion: 

" The enormous yield of the vineyards and orchards are facts which are but Httle known to the 
majority of the people, and but few even of those who know them realize the full meanmg. To the 
eastern man who has tilled the farms of twenty and forty acres that his father tilled before hnii, 
the farms of this great State (California), are as legends of Fairyland; and when told that, with the 
same energy he expends on his forty acres, he can farm in California four times forty acres, he 
becomes incredulous— he cannot imagine such farms as I have seen in that State." 

And yet the obdurate reality remains that small farms are very few, and that hardly an occasional 
inquiry indicates an investigative tendency toward fresh immigration. 

Beside a vineyard measured by miles lies a thirty or forty acre farm that is also wholly devoted 
to grapes— not a pig, or a cow, or a chicken; not a corner, even, given to a kitchen garden or a 
fruit tree. Sometimes it is profitable running a little craft in the wake of a big ship, but on 
frequent occasions it is disastrous. It is certainly the poorest policy for a farmer habitually to 
purchase at retail, the productions of the soil, while unoccupied time and unoccupied corners invari- 
ably run to waste. Otherwise a number of small farmers having found lodgment in close proximity, 
unite in the same industry,— fruit raising, quite as completely ignoring the science of economical 
self-preservation, so skillfully perfected by eastern producers. The inclination is illustrated in a tale 
of one of them who, by some unaccountable accident, found himself possessed of a pig. He did not 



I20 CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 

know what to do with it, but being a humane man he let the creature live as best it could, till it was 
sufficiently grown for the butcher, then he sold it and, with the proceeds, purchased an imported 
ham and a bottle of whiskey. 

The common course of things is more or less responsible for the position of California, without 
the aid of any antagonizing element whatever. The industrial development of a country, once 
started in the wrong direction, can only be set right in a naiural way, by a process very slow in 
producing visible results, and California was started wrong. The first reference to the country, in a 
report of Cortez to Charles V. of Spain, represents California as "an island rich in pearls and gold." 
Through three hundred years of growth, under Spanish and Mexican dominion, the one notoriety 
she obtained was as excellent grazing land; the only service which could reasonably be required 
of her. As such the vast valleys were largely allotted, in enormous grants, to Spanish and Mexican 
cattle raisers. 

By the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the United States received California in 1848, not only 
taking her at the Spanish estimate of availibility, but with a guaranty to respect those original grants 
covering an area of 8,700,000 acres of the best land. 

The following year the gold, to which Cortez referred, brought thousands of prospectors and 
fortune-seekers to California, but very few adventurers anxious to experiment upon the productive 
qualities of the soil. The few who did leave the ranks of the miners simply followed the example of 
the Mexican and Spaniards, acquiring, for grazing purposes, valley lands as vast as possible; and 
not more than thirty years ago it was still the prevailing impressions in many sections that, when the 
mines were exhausted, the miners would return to their eastern homes, and California be left once 
more, to Mexican cattle men and Indians. 

Very slowly it became evident that the State was capable of more than pastures and mines. 
An occasional peach tree, pear or apple shading a miner's door, or a grape vine clinging to his 
cabin enforced the conviction, and the figs and oranges, prunes and olives growing around the old 
monasteries and mission stations, all declared that the soil and climate of California offered boundless 
possibilities for the production of everything semitropical or temperate. 

Thus, even at the outset, there was a widespread conviction to the contrary abroad and consider- 
able prejudice and conflicting interests at home preventing California from spontaneously becoming 
an agricultural State, though by degrees some of the vast pastures were turned into wheat fields and 
vineyards, with marvelous remunerative results. 

Fortunately the cupidity of the large farmers had not absorbed the foothills, and there, in Placer 
County, for example, small fruit farms found lodgement so effectively that in 1892, 1125 carloads 
of fruit were shipped from a single district twelve miles long by five miles wide, clearly demon- 
strating the possibility of profitable small farming in the State; for, in spite of soil and climate and 
land and water transportation privileges, and even at that late day, it had to be demonstrated to be 
believed. 

Another similar district is the Santa Clara Valley, surrounding the charming little city of San 
Jose, frequently referred to as the Garden of Eden. It is a perfect paradise of small farms, yielding, 
producing, and beautiful every month in the year. 

It is unfortunate, in a way that, tempted by the phenomenal abundance and perfection of the 
yield, nearly every small farmer in the State excepting, of course, the Chinese, has devoted his 
entire attention to fruit culture, not only rendering the question of daily bread a constant and quite 
important item of expense, but also making it easy for some temporary eccentricity of the market, 
or unavoidable casualty, to produce a general and possibly serious depression, becoming poignant 
where, under other circumstances, it would hardly be noticeable. Indeed, it is quite possible that, 
for self-protection and economy, fruit raising is somewhat overdone — proportionately overdone — 
adding another misconception and deluding impression for those outside. 

That small farming, in the abstract, is not overdone, not even in the remotest degree approach- 
ing the infinite possibilities easily attainable, is eloquently evident in an official report from which 
are copied the following suggestive statistics: — 

During the year there was brought to California from the East, 2000 ten-ton car loads of stock, 
farm, and poultry-yard products; 5,500,000 pounds of eggs alone. There came by rail 13,000,000 
pounds, and by sea 70,000 cases of canned goods, fish, meat, corn, and other vegetables. Vast 
quantities of oats were imported, over 1,000,000 pounds of pickles and jellies, and nearly 4,000,000 
pounds of corn meal and oat meal, besides almost inconceivable quantities of other products, all of 
which could have been better and more cheaply raised in California, irrespective of the cost of trans- 
portation. Evidently the freight rates are not a ruinously destructive feature, or the common 
instincts of self-preservation would prevent the roads from receiving revenue upon so many tons of 



AN ANALYSIS OF LAND VALUES. 121 

coal to Newcastle. But first and foremost app>ears the incontrovertible evidence of opportunity- 
golden opportunity— for small farmers; w^ith a large local demand at their doors, with cheapness 
and ease of culture and personal comfort assured, with quality and quantity of yield unequalled on 
the earth, and a perpetual protective tariff in the freight charges, which must always he considerable 
on imported goods. 

The large farms have doubtless had a certain obstructive influence, retarding the proper devel- 
opment of the State and the influx of small farmers which one would suppose would instantly follow 
upon the very discovery of such conditions as California affords, but that it was chiefly fictitious is 
evident in the fact that there never has been a time when good farms could not be obtained in any 
size desired; hence something other than railroads and large farms must have aided and indorsed 
the general misconceptions to have so injuriously restrained immigration. Indeed, the potent secret 
lies wholly outside of them, in the very pride of the people of the State, and in their inordinate 
valuation of California. 

That, too, is to-day, something of the past, so far at least as it applies to the appraisal of raw 
land; but it has become such a well-established fact, in the mind of the world at large, that it may 
prove difficult to eradicate. It was a very real condition, a short time ago, and there is no reason- 
able doubt that the great obstruction in the way of immigration at the present time lies in an errone- 
ous impression, throughout the East, based upon the past values of land in California. 

For thirty years people have been coming to this garden of the Pacific Coast to return with the 
report that land was held too absurdly high to offer any inducement to invest. The arguments con- 
cerning climatic limitations, the absence of winter, the intensive culture and more profitable produc- 
tions as adding to the original value of raw land, were all very satisfactory to Californians, but in the 
shrewder calculations of eastern farmers, did not " butter the turnips." 

Land, as a rule, acquires a value correlated to the density of the population; but California was 
an exception. When her phenomenal possibilities were discovered the land at once sympathized, 
in advance, with the value of the intensive culture. When grapes sold for I40 a ton, and it was found 
that vines would yield six to eight tons to the acre, grape land, though not planted, instantly assumed 
a fictitious value; while the productive possibilities of every month of the year, and the ability of 
domestic animals to subsist without the storing of forage, gave even to grazing lands a value 
attaching to twelve months, instead of the five or six that are available in the East. 

All these are very real and potent inducements, and the buyer, when he goeth his way, assuredly 
and justifiably boasteth; but while Californians looked on the outward appearance, as every new 
comer will also the moment he, too, is established as a Californian, the prospective purchaser looks 
only on the heart; and now, at last, the time has come when he can purchase accordingly. 

Natural and artificial processes combined have forced a proper valuation of raw land. The 
decline in wheat has brought some heavily mortgaged large farms into the market, through fore- 
closure, and competing with them, unmortgaged land has lost its fictitious value, till throughout 
California to-day, there are presented the most favorable conditions for settlement that have existed 
since the foundation of the State. 

Let it be distincdy understood, however, that this is a healthful decline and only pertains to uncul- 
tivated soil; that while land rated as "raw " is offered at lower prices than at any time during the 
past thirty years, the significant fact remains that orchards and vineyards command a higher price 
than ever before. It is the inevitable though slow adjustment of supply and demand; the arrange- 
ment of cause that must, eventually, effect an influx of that class the need of which is so vitally felt 
in the State to-day. 

Land owners did not instigate or take kindly to the depreciation. It could hardly have been 
expected of them. Some who are favorably circumstanced still cling to the old rates, and the old 
reasoning; but the decline is not limited to localities,— only the exceptions are limited,— and there 
has not been a period in her history when, in California, as a whole, the cultivator of the soil could 
invest a moderate sum in unimproved land with such confidence and assurance as now. 

Other necessities for development have declined in like manner. Young trees and vines for 
planting, which five years ago cost fifty cents, now sell for nine and twelve cents apiece, and it is a 
fact that cannot be too widely known that a man can produce an orchard, or bring a vineyard to 
bearing in California to-day, for about forty per cent, of any previous figures, besides having a much 
better selection of locality than formerly. 

The most fertile land in California can be bought to-day for thirty per cent, of what was asked 
for it in 1890. All over the State small farms can be secured, land upon which snow never falls and 
where frosts are almost unknown, land that will produce something every month of the year, and 
capable of every object of culture that is raised between the Mediterranean and Norway, at a lower 



,22 CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 

price than is asked in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, or Iowa, where winter consumes 
the summer's product, and there are scarcely five months available out of the twelve. 

In Butte County, for example, orchard land which sold readily for I150 an acre in 1885, is now 
eagerly offered at forty dollars an acre. In the San Joaquin Valley, land is freely offered to-day at 
twenty dollars, which ten years ago would have been called extravagantly cheap at |ioo, and good 
fruit land is selling at|4o, which in 1890 easily commanded $150 an acre. 

These statements are startling, even to many Californians not acquainted with the facts, but they 
are all indorsed by actual transactions and can be easily verified by application to any government, 
local, or railroad land department in the State, and it is these changed conditions which ought, by 
some means, to be carried with convincing force to those who, if properly informed, would find in 
them valuable food for thought, and instigate to action. 



At a regular meeting of the State Board of Trade, held in the rooms of the Board, at 
No. 16 Post street, June 15, 1897, the following Preamble and Resolutions were unani- 
mously adopted: — 

Whereas, The foregoing articles have been submitted for examination and approval 
by this Board, now, therefore, 

Resolved, That the Board commends said articles, as treating in a thoughtful and 
conservative spirit the subject-matter to w^hich each article relates, and that the contents of 
this book are hereby presented to the public, fully endorsed by this Board; 

Resolved, That the thanks of this Board are due and are hereby extended to the 
Committee of Publication for the suggestion, the plan, and the execution of this work. 

It is hereby ordered that the foregoing resolutions be published in the book as an 
attestation of its endorsement by this Board. 

By Order of the Board. 




President, Tehama Co. 



Vice- Pi esident, Alameda Co. 




',^:::^^^^/2^^^.>^ 



Second Vice-President, 
Secretary and Blanager, 

Contra Costa Co. 



Secretary and Manager. 




CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 



123 




Chairman Com. on Publication, 

San Francisco City and County. 




. <c7Ap-^^ 



Chairman Corn, on Irrigation, 

Contra Costa Co. 




Sonoma Co. 




Santa Clara Co. 
Secretary Santa Clara Board of Trade. 



<o[^CAr^, 0<K^c^<^^d^''^^'^---^'\j 



Placer Co. 



\_ / / San / 



Francisco City and County. 



1?^-2^ (O^ ^T^oe-^^^i^ 



Sacram,ento Co. 




San Francisco City and County. 



IN A VINE-GROWING VALLEY. 
By Charles A. Wetmore. 



^^"X^ T"ARM day! Sir," said the Tenderfoot, as he sat in his buggy in front 

\ \!^ of a pretty cottage, on the edge of a brisk httle town in the Cah- 
fornia Coast Range. "I am thirsty," he added; "may I have a 
glass of water?" 

"Come in and welcome," was the hospitable reply of the country Doctor, 
at whose door the stranger had halted. A few minutes later he was seated on the 
porch of the Doctor's cottage, under a shading grape vine. 

"Cool ofT a little first," the physician advised. "Don't drink too much water 
when you are very warm. Try a little wine and Shasta water first. Do you pre- 
fer claret?" 

"Wine! Oh! Never!" the Tenderfoot exclaimed; "pure water for me, — 
always." 

"I'm afraid you often suffer from thirst then," was the laughing response; 
"pure water is a difficult thing for a traveler to find. Ordinary drinking water 
is the source of many diseases, and carelessly taken is the cause of the great 
epidemics and plagues that periodically destroy millions of people in the various 
parts of the world. Excuse me, however, sir, for I, too, am partial to pure water, 
when I can get it. Here is some from a filter, — -help yourself, sir." 

"Water's a little warm. Doctor," the stranger suggested." "Hard to keep 
it cool?" 

"Sometimes," the Doctor replied; "but I generally have it cool in the olla. 
I never use ice in it." 

"Not ice? Why, I couldn't get along without ice at home." 

"Then you seldom drink pure water, sir. Water is not purified by freezing, 
and ice from ponds generally is impure, and often is a source of contagion, be- 
cause ice ponds are often frozen cesspools. Typhus germs may be found in a 
block of ice." 

"You live in a wine covmtry, Doctor. Do you advise the use of wine?" in- 
quired the Tenderfoot, who, despite his prejudices, was eager to pick up informa- 
tion on his travels. 

"That is a broader question than it may seem to you, sir," said the Doctor. 
"I never advise the use of wine without knowing a good deal about the habits 
and temperament of the person. Absolutely pure water, which is, as I said, 
difificult to procure, except under certain conditions, is always safe to advise, and 
for most people, no doubt, the safest drink; so we might theoretically speak of 
certain simple uncooked foods. It is generally safest, however, to boil the water 
and cook the food. Civilization makes a more or less high art of both food and 
drink, and it is only to the temperate that we should reveal and advise the inno- 
cent pleasures that art affords in gratifying our palates. We may condemn habits 
oftener than we may approve them. Take water, for instance. We can frighten 
the world by showing how much misery it has caused through impurity, and 
how much dyspepsia results from ice-water tippling; yet water is essential as an 
element of drink. Some use it as Nature gives it; others, like the Chinese picking 
grapes in the hot sun yonder, drink it only after boiling and as warm tea. The 
Chinese are noted for their immunity from epidemics, because they do not drink 
what is called pure water and because they are temperate in the use of their light 
stimulant; but they are of an older civilization than ours and have eliminated 
many of the savage impulses which lead to intemperate self-indulgences. Yet, 
being older, less sanguine and less aggressive, they take to narcotics. They have 
little to live for; so they prefer sleep. Civilizations emerging from savage condi- 
tions often run riot in the indulgence of their passions or emotions, whether in 
religion or diet. So we find races for whom wine is dangerous and others for 



IN A VINE-GROWING VALLEY. 125 

whom it is apparently, at least, harmless and at the same time conducive to gen- 
eral happiness. In this country we have such a mixed people that no rule can be 
laid down. We must let individual families judge for themselves, while always 
condemning intemperance." 

"Well, Doctor, you admit that there may be a question of intemperance in 
the use of wine, do you not?" 

"Undoubtedly! As in everything else. Men of intemperate habits of mind 
find intemperance in all practices, according to their dispositions and environ- 
ments. Intemperance in the gratification of the stomach manifests itself in many 
forms. Its chief cause is irregularity in habits of eating and drinking. Those 
who never eat or drink except at stated times and never solely for social enjoy- 
ment are seldom, if ever, sufferers from intemperance. Wine drinking, as a rule, 
should be indulged by those who drink only at their meals; but, if wine is par- 
taken on all possible social occasions and at all times of the day, the habit may 
be regarded as intemperate, and is certainly often dangerous to health. Ameri- 
cans generally are poor wine drinkers because the greater number of them eat 
and drink irregularly and forget that their stomachs were not made to play 
social tunes upon. Intemperate drinkers think that nothing can happen without 
calling their palates to celebrate or sympathize. That's why we have so many 
saloons, ice cream parlors, candy shops, soda water fountains and the like. In 
many homes a visitor is scarcely seated before he, or she, is offered some form of 
intemperate indulgence, whether wine, soda water, lemonade, ginger pop, cake 
or candy. They begin it with the children, offering them lolly pop and cake at 
all hours. If our people had correct habits of eating and drinking only at regular 
meals, you would hear the question of intemperance in wine raised only in ex- 
ceptional instances, as with the glutton. Cure the habits of the people in this 
respect and the saloon question will dwarf to insignificant proportions. It does 
little good to attack one form of intemperance and leave all others unchecked. 
I know many American families where good habits prevail, and in them I see 
nothing to condemn in the usual wine drinking at meals. So far as it adds pleas- 
ure and cheerfulness to daily life it is a positive benefit. Americans, however, 
are not forming the habit of wine drinking very fast; indeed the per capita con- 
sumption of table wines is not materially increasing. The increase of production 
only keeps pace with the population. That is why the planting of vineyards is 
not likely to increase rapidly. The apparently innocent barley and corn fields are 
the resources of most of the intemperate classes. Iowa turns out more drink 
material than California. So far as people will drink fermented and distilled 
beverages, the influence of vineyards in California is at least more refining and 
tends towards better habits without increasing in any appreciable way the evils 
of intemperance. Wine makers, I find, are generally indifferent as to assaults on 
the saloon habits, because comparatively little of their products is sold in the 
saloons." 

The Tenderfoot drank another big glass of water, and, after reflecting awhile, 
renewed the conversation. 

"Doctor," said he, "I am traveling in California to renew my health, if pos- 
sible, and am desirous of settling in a community of good habits, such as I ap- 
prove. I am in doubt because I do not find the New England steadiness of 
social customs, and I have been fearful of the future of a country where so much 
saloon life is visible. I have thought that the future of a wine-making country 
would not be hopeful." 

"My dear sir!" exclaimed the Doctor, "have you forgotten that the wealth, 
culture and aristocratic society of New England was founded on the rum and 
slave trade? New England bought molasses and made rum; exchanged rum for 
negro slaves; sold slaves and bought more molasses. Do you forget that a 
barrel of rum was invariably an item of expense in a Connecticut church raising? 
Do you forget that the Puritans came seeking a country all to themselves and 
found that they had to live with Quakers and afterwards with Unitarians? You 
will find no country in these days where any school of moralists can live long to 



126 CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 

themselves, even if they start isolated colonies. Society is complex everywhere 
nowadays, and each family must learn to live after its own taste and disposition. 
You cannot predict the future of California from present occupations of a part of 
the people with any better success than your great-grandfather could have pre- 
dicted the society founded by New England rum makers and slave dealers. 
Education and refinement, as it eleminates the savage inpulses, builds on that 
which survives the test of human progress. Restrictive laws have no more 
lasting influence than the Blue Laws of Connecticut. Your best indication of the 
future of this State is in the schools and colleges. Chauncey Depew, when he 
reported on his discovery of California, told the Eastern people that he had found 
the finest buildings in every town to be the school houses. If the schoolmaster 
leads here, as in New England, why should you fear for our future? Education 
and industry will soon overcome any incidental evil influences of any industry. 
So far as the wine maker in this State is a means towards cheerful and happy life, 
be sure that his industry will stand. So far as his products may be used intem- 
perately, be sure it will be the fault of education and home discipline. So far as 
intemperance may continue, it will not be the fault of the vineyards but of the 
grain fields. 

"Thank you. Doctor. I must be going. I feel thirsty yet; another glass of 
water, if you please; it seems as though I could not drink enough," and the 
stranger rose. 

"No doubt your stomach is a little out of order," replied the Doctor, passing 
the water pitcher. "Did you not eat too much pie and pancakes for breakfast?" 

"Well, perhaps I did; I am very fond of pastry and warm bread." 

"That is a common complaint. Those who do not drink wine at their meals 
generally satisfy their palates with sugared food. You seldom see a wine drinker 
who indulges in cake and pastry. He gets his hydro-carbon indulgence without 
sugar, and, if he is temperate, with less injury to his stomach. The intemperate 
use of sugar produces probably as much disease as alcohol. Dyspeptic irritability 
often causes the intemperate use of water, which increases the difficulty. I would 
advise you to try claret and water at your meals, cold, well-baked bread for break- 
fast, and abstinence from cake, pie and candied desserts. Above all be careful 
that the water you drink is pure. When in doubt, see that it is boiled. Unless 
you are careful, water drinking is a dangerous habit." 

"Good-bye, Doctor. You have set me to thinking." 

The Tenderfoot went his way seeking more knowledge of California. "That 
Doctor is a crank on water! said he to himself at his hotel, after ordering his 
pitcher of ice water. 

The Doctor smoked his pipe on his porch. "That Tenderfoot is a crank on 
wine," he muttered. "But he'll get over it as they all do." 



FOOD FISHES OF CAUFORNIA. 
By David Starr Jordan. 



OF the rivers of California, the Sacramento is the richest in food fishes, and its 
fish are the most valuable. Although a great deal of fishing has taken 
place and the splendid exuberance of life which distinguished the Sacra- 
mento m its earlier days has now passed away, yet there are few rivers in the world 
passmg through a region of civilization in which the fishery products have the 
importance of those of the Sacramento. Only the Columbia River would excel it 
m these regards. The Yukon is larger than either and is^ stocked with fish, but 



FOOD FISHES OF CALIFORNIA. 127 

its fishes are not so intrinsically valuable, and the larger part of the course of 
the stream is far away from civilization. 

THE SALMON. 

The most valuable fish of the Pacific Coast is the quinnat or king salmon 
(Oncorhynchtis tschawytscha.) This fish reaches, in the Sacramento, an average 
weight of sixteen pounds, but older individuals, which have probably survived 
the spawning season, have been taken weighing as high as seventy to one hundred 
pounds. 

This species is the greatest of all the known salmon, and on the whole its 
flesh is the richest and best flavored. On the Columbia River it is canned in great 
numbers, and in less numbers along the Sacramento, and it is the standard salmon 
of commerce. 

The other four species of salmon, the humpback, the blueback, the dog 
salmon and the silver salmon, so abundant in Oregon, Washington and Alaska, 
are only occasionally taken in California. 

Of these species the blueback predominates in the Fraser River and in the 
Yukon River, the silver salmon and the humpback in Puget Sound, the 
quinnat in the Columbia and the Sacramento, and the silver salmon in most of 
the streams along the Coast. All the species have been seen by me in the Colum- 
bia and Fraser River; all but the blueback in the Sacramento and in waters tribu- 
tary to Puget Sound. Only the quinnat salmon has been noticed south of San 
Francisco. Its range has been traced as far as Ventura River. Of these species, 
the king salmon and blueback salmon habitually "run" in the spring, the others 
in the fall. 

The economic value of the spring-running salmon is far greater than that of 
the other species, because they can be captured in numbers when at their best, 
while the others are usually taken only after deterioration. To this fact the 
worthlessness of the dog salmon, as compared with the other species, is probably 
chiefly due. 

As already stated, the economic value of any species depends in great part 
on its being a "spring salmon." It is not generally possible to capture salmon of 
any species in large numbers until they have entered the rivers, and the spring 
salmon enter the rivers long before the growth of the organs of reproduction 
has reduced the richness of the flesh. The fall salmon cannot be taken in quantity 
until their flesh has deteriorated; hence the dog salmon is practically worthless, 
except to the Indians, and the humpback salmon is little better. The silver 
salmon, with the same breeding habits as the dog salmon, is more valuable, as it 
is found in the inland waters of Puget Sound for a considerable time before the 
fall rains cause the fall runs, and it may be taken in large numbers with seines 
before the season for entering the rivers. The quinnat salmon, from its great size 
and abundance, is more valuable than all the other fishes on our Pacific Coast 
taken together. The blueback, similar in flesh, but much smaller and less abund- 
ant, is worth much more than the combined value of the three remaining species 
of salmon. 

OVER-FISHING. 

The utter disappearance of the salmon fishery of the Columbia is only a 
question of a few years unless some vigorous means is taken to prevent over- 
fishing, to prevent the destruction of young fish, and to replenish the losses from 
all these causes. The same story of the destruction of the rich fisheries of the 
Columbia will be told again in the Fraser River and in the Yukon, and in every 
other stream where unlimited fishing is allowed, and where no adequate ef¥ort is 
made to keep up the supply. 

CALIEORNIAN TROUT. 

The steelhead trout {Salmo gairdneri) is also found in the rivers of California 
in the spring, running with the quinnat. The name salmon trout is often applied 



128 CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 

to this fish, which is indeed very much hke the true salmon trout of England, but 
the name steelhead seems to me very much preferable because it is not given to 
any other fish. 

The steelhead usually weighs six to twelve pounds, but it occasionally reaches 
twenty or even twenty-five pounds. Those seen at the mouth of the river at the 
time of the early salmon runs are evidently spent fishes. They are lean and lank, 
the flesh is pale and poor, and the bones are hard, for all of which reasons it is, 
or ought to be, rejected by the canners, although there is no doubt that the steel- 
head, when taken at its best, may be one of the finest of all trout. It certainly 
reaches the largest size of any other real trout in any country. 

Steelheads are most abundant in the Columbia, but they are common in the 
Sacramento, as well as in the Klamath, the Eel River, and the streams about 
Monterey. It is not unlikely that most of the trout in the coastwise streams of 
Northwestern California belong to this species. 

As the salmon has declined in number, the steelhead has become relatively 
more important, and is now largely brought into the market, and even canned; 
but it has no great commercial importance, and as a food fish it should be taken 
earlier in the season than the time of the salmon runs. 

In the smaller streams about San Francisco is found the rainbow trout {Salmo 
irideus). This is very similar to the steelhead, but much smaller in size, with more 
spots, and with larger head and smaller mouth. It is subject to many variations, 
and its value is mainly to the anglers, who will find it in abundance in any of the 
streams tributary to the lower Columbia. Apparently the rainbow trout does not 
go out to sea. 

More important than the rainbow trout, and reaching the larger size, is the 
cut-throat trout, which is found in Lake Tahoe and the Truckee River, as well as 
in the streams of Humboldt and Del Norte counties. The cut-throat trout is 
easily distinguished from the others by its smaller scales, and especially by the 
deep orange-colored blotch partially concealed by the branches of the lower jaw 
on each side. This trout does not often descend to the sea, but in all of the small 
streams and lakes to the eastward it is abundant, and furnishes excellent sport. 
In the steelhead and rainbow trout the red dash under the throat, the mark of the 
cutthroat or Sioux Indian, is never found. From the rainbow trout the young 
steelhead can be most easily distinguished by its smaller scales, there being in the 
rainbow trout about 130 in the lateral line and in the steelhead about 150. 

In the upper waters of the Sacramento and m the colder streams of the 
Cascades is found the charr, known as the brook trout or dolly varden. This is 
the finest of all the trout-like fishes on the Coast. It is known from all the 
others by the fact that its scales are extremely small, and the spots on its body are 
pink or gray. In specimens in clear waters where the colors are very dark the 
spots are bright crimson, but in sea-run specimens the body becomes light gray 
and the spots themselves fade away. The charr sometimes reaches a weight in 
salt water of eleven pounds, but in mountain streams specimens weighing even a 
single pound are rare. 

Farther to the northward the dolly varden trout becomes very abundant, and 
in the Aleutian Islands it swarms not only in every brook and lake, but in every 
arm of the sea, and in Alaska it becomes a nuisance by devouring the eggs and 
young of the salmon. 

THE STURGEON. 

The common or white sturgeon is the only one valuable for food. It reaches 
a length of from eight to ten feet or more, and is said to attain a weight of 400 to 
500 pounds; the largest seen by me weighed about 150 pounds. It is found in 
the mouths of all large rivers in abundance, ascending the Columbia at the time 
of the salmon run, and for the same purpose of spawning. The flesh of the 
sturgeon is rather coarse and not especially well-flavored. It is therefore very 
much cheaper than the salmon, and has in the Columbia, at present, little import- 
ance. Its flesh is sometimes smoked, especially by the Indians, and caviare made 
from its roe. 



FOOD FISHES OF CALIFORNIA. 129 

The green sturgeon is also found in the Sacramento River, but is much less 
common, and is said to be poisonous; what justification this evil reputation has 
I do not know. 

There is also a lamprey in the Sacramento River, reaching a length of a foot 
or two. Its rich oily flesh, like the flesh of the eel, ought to make it good eating, 
but I have never heard of its being brought into the market. 

The squaw fish is a coarse, overgrown chub, with a long, slender body and a 
pike-like head, but like other chubs is destitute of teeth. It reaches a length of 
three to four feet, and it runs in the small streams in the spring to spawn. It is 
sometimes brought into the market, but its flesh is rather tasteless and it is full 
of bones. Besides this there are three or four other chubs found in the Sacra- 
mento, rarely reaching a length of more than a foot, and all similarly inferior in 
flavor. 

The family of suckers is also represented in the Sacramento by one very 
common species. They reach a length of one to two feet. The flesh is very soft 
and poor as well as being full of bones. In a region like California, stocked with 
better fish, the sucker is only valuable as food for these. 



HERRING, SMEI.T AND PERCH. 

All along the coast of California the herring is found in great abundance. 
This species is very similar to the herring of the Atlantic and about the same size, 
but its abundance is even greater. When fresh it is a most excehent food fish, 
and it comes in large quantities to the markets. At present very few herring are 
smoked, but in some regions many are destroyed for the oil which is pressed 
from their bodies. 

Another fish of the herring family is the California sardine, which is taken in 
large quantities ofif the coast s;outhward. It is an excellent fish. 

The smelt family is represented by a number of small species less than a foot 
long. Of these the most valuable is the eulachon, often called the candlefish 
because of its extreme fatness. This species comes occasionally into the San 
Francisco market from Fraser River. They run in considerable numbers up the 
river in the spring, depositing spawn in gravel beds probably about thirty miles 
from the sea. Of all the food fishes of America, the eulachon is the most delicate, 
and when fresh and properly cooked the finest in its flavor. 

The surf smelt is another excellent species of delicate flesh and fine flavor. 
It does not enter the river, but is found about its mouth along with the still smaller 
and less abundant California smelt. 

The term smelt is often applied to a group of silversides or fishes of the king. 
These have great importance on the coast of California, the flesh being firm and 
of good flavor. 

THE ROCK FISH. 

Equally abundant and characteristic of the Pacific Coast is the great family 
known as rock fish, commonly known as rock cod, although they have no 
resemblance to the real cod. Of this group there are about forty species, some of 
them green or black in color, looking like black bass, and others of various 
shades of yellow and bright red. The red species live in the deepest water and 
have the roughest and most horny heads. All the species are found about rocky 
reefs, many of them at considerable depths, and they always stay close at home, 
never migrating and the individuals never moving far from the rock to which 
they belong. They are all voracious, taking the hook readily and feeding upon 
other fishes. They are all fairly good food fish; the flesh is fine and white, of fair 
flavor, but a little coarse. 

Not unlike the rock fish in habits and bright colors is the group of rock 
trout. These reach a length of about two feet, are dark greenish in color, usually 
with red spots or ornamentations. They live about rocky places, and the flesh is 
of fair quality. 



I30 CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF TRADE. 

Another fish of this type is the so-called cultus cod, or blue cod. This fish 
bears some resemblance to the codfish. It reaches a length of about five feet 
and a weight of fifty or sixty pounds. Its flesh is blue or green in color and of 
fair quality. This is one of the most important of the salt-water fishes of the 
Oregon coast. Akin to it is the black candlefish or beshow. This is a good 
food fish, black in color, reaching a length of nearly two feet and a weight of about 
five pounds. 

The sculpin family is numerously represented on the Coast, some of the 
species reaching a considerable size. The flesh of all is white, rather tasteless and 
tough, and none are of economic importance. Some of the species infest the fresh- 
water streams, where they feed persistently on the eggs of trout, doing a great 
amount of mischief. 

The species of hake, pollack, tom cod, and other cod-like fishes, are often 
taken off the coast of California. The tom cod, which is a very small cod, about 
a foot long, is the most abundant and the most valuable of these. Its watery 
flesh is not bad-flavored, and it meets with a ready sale in the market as a pan fish. 

The great codfish of the Pacific is occasionally taken in deep water off the 
coast of Washington, but has no importance as a fish of California. 

The flounders are very abundant on the sandy coasts of California, the most 
important being the starry flounder, which often ascends the mouths of rivers. 
This is a good food fish, and reaches a weight of twenty pounds. The smaller 
individuals, however, are much better than the large ones. The other species of 
flounder are smooth-skinned, less varied in color and smaller in size. These are 
usually sold in the markets as sole, but the true sole is not found on the 
Pacific Coast. 

To the flounder family belongs the halibut, which reaches a very great size, 
and is taken in small numbers off certain reefs of the Washington coast. Though 
brought into the markets of San Franisco it is not properly a California fish. 

THE COAST FISHERIES. 

The fisheries of the coast are as yet very little developed. Collins estimates that 
on the seven thousand miles of coast of California, Oregon and Washington, the 
fisheries are about equal to those of the five hundred miles of the coast of New 
England. The value of the Pacific Coast product was estimated at $10,000,000, 
that of New England at $15,000,000. In the ten years between 1880 and 1890, the 
number of pounds of fish caught in California has increased from 14,000,000 to 
23,000,000. At the same time there has been a considerable falling off in the 
fishes of Oregon, and a smaller apparent gain in the fisheries of Washington. But 
this change is probably due to the fact that most of the salmon catch in the 
Columbia was attributed to Oregon in 1880, and in 1890 distributed between 
Oregon and Washington. 

Comparing in detail the report of Jordan and Gilbert, in 1880, on the fishes 
of California, with the report of Wilcox and Collins, in 1890, I find that the num- 
ber of fishermen in California had increased from 3,094 to 4,731, an increase a 
little less than proportionate to the increase in the number of pounds of fish 
caught. The average fisherman in 1880 caught 4,660 pounds of fish in the year; 
while the average fisherman in 1890 caught very nearly 5,000 pounds. 

INTRODUCING EASTERN PISH. 

The first Eastern fish to be introduced into the rivers of California was the 
brown catfish (Ameiurus nebulosus), which at once adapted itself to its surround- 
ings, and has inordinately multiplied itself in the sluggish waters of the Sacra- 
mento and San Joaquin rivers. This is a very good food fish, very hardy, and 
probably better than most of the native fishes which it is intended to supplant. 
One of these, however, the so-called river perch or rock bass of these streams, 
is certainly disappearing as the catfish extends its range, and is better both as a 
game and as a food fish than the catfish is. The catfish has been well established 



FOOD FISHES OF CALIFORNIA. 



131 



for about fifteen years. The original specimens were brought from the neighbor- 
hood of Philadelphia. 

Since 1880, whether intentionally or not, I do not know, another species of 
catfish has been brought in, apparently from the Potomac River. This new form, 
the Ameiurus cahis, may be known from the other by its forked tail. As food fishes, 
or in other respects, there is little choice between the two. 

The European carp is also now well established in the Sacramento River, 
where it seems likely to become a positive nuisance. As a food fish it is inferior 
to almost everything else on the Coast, and hunters complain that it is destroy- 
ing the vallisneria, or so-called water celery, on which the canvasback duck feeds, 
and to which its delicious flavor is usually attributed. In any event the carp can 
form no valuable addition to the river fishes of California. Its value rests on the 
fact that in ponds it grows very rapidly, and will feed on almost anything. 

The introduction of the shad, which took place some fifteen years ago, has 
been an unqualified success. It is one of the very best of food fishes, and it has 
m.ade itself thoroughly at home in the rivers of California, Oregon and Washing- 
ton. It may now be found in the markets at all times of the year. It has crowded 
out no other species of fish, and there has been nothing but gain from its intro- 
duction. The same may be said of the later introduction of the Eastern striped 
bass. It is not yet as abundant as the shad, but large specimens may often be 
seen in the markets, and it is destined to become one of the most important food 
fishes of the Pacific Coast, as it has long been of the Atlantic. 




SPANISH AND INDIAN NAMES. 



VERY few of the Spanish names of places in California are pronounced correctly by 
Americans. In the pronunciations given below in this list of the more widely 
known names, the popular pronunciation is given in preference to that which is 
exactly correct, with a leaning toward the correct sound. In Spanish, a is pronounced as 
a in "father," e as a in "state," and i as e in "me"; but in unaccented syllables these 
sounds are obscure. There are certain difficulties with regard to some of the consonants, 
but they receive little respect from Americans. By following the rough guide here set up, 
the stranger will run little risk of making too radical a departure from local custom. 



Alameda [al-ah-MAv-dah]. Poplar grove; 
public walk. 

Alamitos [al-ah-MEE-toce]. Little poplars. 

Alcatraz [al-cah-TRASs]. Pelican. 

Alma [AL-mah]. Spirit. 

Almaden [al-may-DENJ. The mine. (Arab.) 

Alvarado [al-vah-RAH-do]. Name of a family. 

Alviso [al-VEE-so]. Name of a family. 

Amador [am-ah-DORE]. .Lover. 

Aptos [AP-toce]. Indian name, 

Arroyo [ar-RO-yo]. Creek — a o:eneraI term. 

Asuncion [ah-soon-cee-OANJ. Elevation. 

Atascadero [ah-tass-cah-DAY-ro]. Quagmire. 

Benicia [bay-NEE-ce-ah]. Meant for Benecia 
(or Venecia). Venice. 

Bernal [ber-NAL]. A family name. Literally, 
vernal, green. 

Boca [BO-cah]. Mouth, entrance. 

BoLSA [BOLE-sah]. Pocket. 

Buena Vista [nwAv-nay VEECE-tah]. Good 
view. 

Cabazon [cab-a-soAN]. Tax registrar, shirt 
collar. 

Calaveras [cal-ah-VAY-rass]. Skulls. 

Caliente [cal-e-EN-ty]. Hot. 

Candelaria [can-day-LAH-re-ah]. Candlemas. 

Carmelo [car-MEL-o]. Carmel. 

Carnadero [car-nah-DAV-ro]. Literally, bait- 
maker. 

Carpenteria [car-pin-tay-REE-ah]. Carpenter- 
shop. 

Casa Blanca [cASs-ah BLAN-cah]. White 
house. 

Cazadero [cas-ah-DAY-ro]. Place for pursu- 
ing game. 

Cerritos [cer-REE-toce]. Little hills. 

Chico [chee-co]. Small. 

Cienega [cee AY-nay-gah]. Marsh. 

Colorado [col-o-RAH-doJ. Red. 

Colusa [co-LOO-sah]. An Indian name. 

Contra Costa [coN-trah cocE-tah]. Oppo- 
site coast. 

Coronado [cor-o-NAH-do]. Name of a family. 

Coyote [ki-YO-ty]. A species of wolf. 

Del Norte [del NOR-ty]. Of the north. 

Dos Palmas [doce PAHL-moce]. Two palms. 

Duarte [dwar-ty]. 

El Casco [el cas-co]. The cranium. 

El Dorado [el do RAH-do]. Gold field. 

El Toro [el TO-ro]. The bull. 

El Verano [el vay-RAH-no]. The surfimer. 

Encinitas [en-cee-NEE-tahss]. Little oaks. 

EscoNDiDO [es-con-DEE-do]. Hidden. 

Esparto [es PAR-to]. Spanish grass. 

Fresno [freesno]. Ash tree. 

Fruto [FROoto]. Profit, income. 



Gabilan [gab-e-LAN]. Sparrow hawk. 
Guadalupe [gwah-day-LOO-py]. Literally, wolf 

river. 
Indio. Indian. 

Inyo [iN-yoJ. An Indian name. 
Hotel del Monte [hotel del MON-ty]. Hotel 

of the forest. 
Lacuna del Rey [lah-GOO-nab del ray]. Lake 

of the king. 
La JoYA [la HO-yah]. The jewel. 
Linda Rosa [LiN-dah Ro-sah]. Pretty rose. 
LoBOS [LO-boce]. Wolves. 
Loma Prieta [LO-ma pre-a-tah]. Dark slope. 
Los Angeles [loce ANG-a-less]. The Angels. 
Los Banos [loce BAN-yoce]. The baths, or 

swimming pools. 
Los Gatos [loce GAH-toce]. The cats. 
Los Nietos [loce ne-A-toce]. The grandchil- 
dren. 
Los Olivos [loce ol-E-voce]. The olive trees. 
Madrone [mad-ROAN]. A California tree. 

(Proper form, madrono.) 
Majella [mah-HEL-lah]. Probably meant for 

Maela (mah-A-lah), contraction of Ysmsela, 

Spanish feminine of Ishmael. 
Manzanita [man-sa-NEE-tah]. Little apple. 
Marin [ma-REEN]. Name of an Indian chief. 
Mariposa [mar-e-po-sah]. Butterfly. 
Martinez [mar-TEE-ness]. Name of a family. 
Mendocino [men-do-CEE-no]. An Indian name. 
Merced [mer-CED]. Mercy. 
Milpitas [mil-PEE-tass]. Meadow. 
Modesto [mo-DEs-to]. Modest. 
MojAVE [mo-HAH-vy]. Name of an Indian tribe. 
Mono [mo-uo]. An Indian name. Spanish 

meaning, monkey. 
Monte i3iABLO [MON-ty de-AH-blo]. Devil 

mountain. 
Monterey [monty-RAv]. Literally, king's 

mountain, or the king. 
Morocojo [mo-ro-co-ho]. Literally, lame Moor 

or lame negro. 
OjAi [o-hi]. 

Pacheco [pay-CHAV-co]. Name of a family, 
Pajaro [PAH-hah-ro]. Bird. 
Palo Alto [pah-1o AHL-to]. Tall tree, 
Paloma [pah-LO-mah]. Dove. 
Paraiso [pah-Ri-so]. Paradise. 
Pasadena [pass-a-DEE-nah]. 
Paso Robles [pass-o Ro-bless]. Oak pass. 

(Properly, El Paso de Robles.) 
Pescadero [pess-cah-DAY-ro.] Fishmonger. 
Pinole [pe-No-ly]. A fermented drink of sugar, 

ground corn, and water. 
Placer [pLASs-er]. Gold-bearing gravel. 
Plaza [PLAS-ah]. Public square. 



STATISTICAL SUPPLEMENT. 



^ZZ 



Plumas [PLoo-mas]. Feathers. 

Presidio [pra-CEE-de-o]. Garrison. 

PuENTE [poo-EN-ty], Bridge. 

Redondo [ray-DON-do]. Round. 

RiNCON [rin-coAN]. Place where two corners 

meet. 
Rio [ree-o]. River. 
Sacramento. The Sacrament. 
Salinas [sa-LEE-nas]. Salt pits. 
San Ardo [san AR-do]. St. Ardo. 
San Benito [san ba-NEE-to]. St. Benedict. 
San Bernardino [san ber-nar-DEE-no]. St. 

Bernard. 
San Bruno. St. Bruno. 
San Buenaventura [san bway-nah-ven-xoo- 

rah]. St. Bonaventure. 
San Carlos [san CAR-loce]. St. Charles. 
San FiLiPE [san fa-LEE-py]. St. Phillip. 
San Fernando [san fer-NAN-do]. St. Ferdi- 
nand. 
San P'rancisco. St. Francis. 
San Gabriel [san gab-re-EL]. St. Gabriel. 
San Joaquin [san hwah-icEEN]. St. Joachim. 
San Jose [san ho-SAV]. St. Joseph. 
San Juan [san hvvahn]. St. John. 
San Leandro [san la-AN-dro]. St. Leander. 
San Lorenzo [san 1o-ren-so]. St. Laurence. 
San Lucas [san Loo-ca.s]. St. Luke. 
San Luis Obispo [san Loo-is o-bis po]. 

Louis Bishop. 
San M.ateo [san ma-XAV-o]. St. Matthew. 
Santa Ana [santa an ah]. St. Ann. 
Santa Barbara. St. Barbara. 
Santa Catalina [sAN-ta cat-a-LEE-nah ]. 

Catherine. 
Santa Clara. St. Clara. 
Santa Cruz [santa cruce]. Holy Cross. 
Santa Inez (or Ynes, or Inks, or'YNEz [santa 

E-ness]. St. Agnes. 
Santa Isabel (or Ysabel) [santa eece-ah-BEL]. 

St. Elizabelh. 
Santa Lucia [santa loo-CEE-ah]. St. Lucy. 
Santa Margarita L^anta mar-ga-REE-tali]. 

St. Margaret. 
Santa Paula [santa pow-lahj. St. Pauline. 
Santa Rosa [sania RO-sahJ. St. Rose. 



St. 



St. 



Saratoga. Healing waters. (Indian.) 

Sausalito [sow say-LEE-toJ. Small elder- 
grove. 

Sequoia [se-Quoi-ah]. Name of a Cherokee 
chief, who invented an alphabet of his lan- 
guage. 

Shasta. Stone house, cave. (Indian.) 

Sierra Moreno [se-AiR-rah mo-RAv-no]. 
brown mountains. 

Sierra Nevada [se-AiR-rah nay-vAH-dah]. 
Snowy mountain range. 

Siskiyou [sis-ki-you]. Indian name. 

Solano [so-LAH-no]. East wind. 

SoLEDAD [sole-a-DAHD]. Solitude, a desert. 

Sonoma [so-NO-mah]. Valley of the moon. 
(Indian). 

SoNORA [so-NO-rah]. Zither. 

SoQUEL [so-KEL]. Indian name. 

Stanislaus [stan-is-LAUSEJ. Proper name. 

SuNOL [soon-YOLE]. Name of a family. 

Tehachapi (or Tia Chepa) [te-HATCH-a-py]. 
Aunt Josie. 

Tahoe [tah-o]. Big water. (Indian.) 

Tamalpais [tah-mahl-PAH-eece]. Land of the 
Tamal (or Tomol) Indians. 

Tassajara [tas-sah-HAH-rah]. 

Tejon [tay-HOAN]. Badger. 

Temescal [tem-es-CAL]. Sweatbox. (Indian.) 

Tia JuANA [TEE-ah HWA-nah]. Aunt Jane. 

TiBURON [tee-boo-ROANj. Shark. 

Tres Pinos [tress PEE-noce]. Three pines. 

Tulare [too-LAH-ry]. Place covered with 
tules (rushes). 

TuLE [Too-ly]. Bulrush. 

Tuolumne [too-OL-um-ny]. Name of an Indian 
tribe. 

Vacaville [vAC-ah-ville]. Vaca is the name 
of a family. Literally, cow. 

Vallejo [val-YA-ho]. Name of a family. 

Ventura [ven-Too-rah]. Venture, risk, luck. 

Yolo [yo-Io]. Rush-covered marsh. (Indian). 

YosEMiTE [yo-SEM-e-ty]. Large grizzly bear. 

(Indian.) 
Yuba [vu-ba]. Indian name. 
Zayante [zy-AN-ty.] 



J' 



PLANTING OF THE MISSIONS. 



San Diego de Alcald jul ^g g 

San Carlos Borromeo June 30 1770 

San Antonio de Padua iy]y j, jli^ 

San Gabriel Arcangel ■.;.■;:.■.'.■ September s! 1771 

San Luis Obispo September i, 1772 

San Francisco de Asis October 9 1776 

San Juan Capistrano '.'.'.'.'. W November i,' 1776 

hanta Clara January 12, 1777 

San Buenaventura March 31, 1782 

Santa Barbara December 4, 1786 

La Purisima Concepcion December 8, 1787 

Santa Cruz September 25, 1791 

La Soledad October 9, 1791 

ban Jos6 june 11, 1797 

San Juan Bautista june 24, 1797 

San Miguel j„, ^^^ 

San Fernando September 8, 1797 

San Luis Rey june 13. 1798 

Santa Inez ■ • • • September 17, 1804 

San Rafael Arcangel December 18, 1817 

San Francisco Solano iy]y . \^2-\ 



CITY AND COUNTY OF SANTA CRUZ. 



ii 



T 



.HE County of Santa Cruz is, emphatically, a county of pleasant homes, — a 
county in which any industrious man of moderate means can build himself 
a home. And the man who invests in Santa Cruz soil can rest certain that 
he will reap richer returns than did the hardy generation v\ hich upturned the soil in 
search of gold. On the gentle slopes of the mountains flourish the vineyard and the 
orchard ; in the pleasant valleys, grain and grass and fruit yield abundantly ; in the 
rich valley of the Pajaro the rancher coins the sugar beet into hard dollars ; the gigantic 
redwoods keep busy the lumbermen of the hills ; the magnificent water power drives 
the engines and lights the lamps of the city ; the splendid quarries of lime and petro- 
leum rock bring livelihoods to hundreds ; and over all this scene of happiness and 
orderly, industrial content broods the bright sunshine, and softly blow the delicious 
breezes of the fairest, loveliest spot that ever slept and waked in the smile of God." 




Pacific Avenue, City of Santa Cruz. 
A FEW STATISTICS AND FACTS. 

Santa Cruz has the most beautiful beach on the Pacific Coast. 

Has unlimited electric power, generated by mountain streams. 

City of Santa Cruz supplies water to consumers at a merely nominal rate — 50 cents. 

Lowest death rate. 

Bitumen-paved streets, electric lights, electric cars, electric power for manufac- 
turing establishments. 

Has free postoffice delivery to all parts of Santa Cruz. 

A natural sanitarium. 

Largest beet-sugar factory in the world is located at Watsonville. 

Has five daily newspapers. 

The finest wines of native growth are made in the Santa Cruz Mountains. 

The Pajaro Valley produces nearly forty per cent more to the acre of sugar beets 
than any other part of the United States. 




The Ancient Mission of tlie Holy Cross. 

Has seventy-four public and private schools. 

The most solid banks in the whole State. 

The greatest limestone and bituminous rock quarries, the greatest petroleum 
mines, the greatest redwood timber tracts, on the Pacific Coast. In 1896 over 
$63,000 paid out for hauling and mining bituminous rock. 

One of the largest powder and dynamite works in the country. 

Forty thousand acres of pasture land on which the grass is green all the year round. 

The finest salmon fishing in the world. 

The climate is the most equable in the world, having neither extreme of heat 
nor cold. 

Has railroad and steamboat competition, and thus obtains freight rates far lower 
than any other county in California, thus giving the farmers cheap access to good 
markets, and making the value of a farm of 100 acres in Santa Cruz County, partic- 
ularly in the vicinity of Watsonville, nearly three times the value of a similar farm 
anywhere else in the State. 

The policy of the principal land owners is to subdivide and sell to actual settlers, 
and any man with a little means and no fear of work can make himself a home in 
Santa Cruz County. 

L,and can be obtained in small tracts — an impossibility in many parts of this State. 

Families can live in comfort on the produce of chicken and fruit and vegetable 
ranches of from two to ten acres. 

Santa Cruz has one of the best-equipped business colleges in the country. 

Small tracts of land can be obtained on the most favorable terms and long time. 

The northern part of the county furnishes the hunter the finest shooting in the 
State, the Big Basin being alive with game of all kinds. 

All county roads built scientifically and sprinkled daily. The best county roads 
in the State, as certified by the State Road Commission. 

Has six weekly newspapers. 

Santa Cruz is the most picturesque city in California. The cottages of even the 
poorest are embowered in flowers, which bloom in profusion the whole year round. 



THE CALIFORNIA MINERS' ASSOCIATION. 

BY PRESIDENT J. H. NEFF. 

Through the California Miners' Association, with its enthusiastic energy and co-operative deter- 
mination, the mining industry in California has taken on new life, and its future outlook is more than 
ordinarily bright. The steady increase in the annual gold yield of our State is supplemented by renewed 
activity and increasing yields in other branches of mining to the extent that the eyes of the world are 
now turned upon California, and legitimate investors are making careful and earnest examination of the 
advantages here offered. 

Before the formation of this association, the individual miner was left to his own resources. No 
matter how much cause of complaint he might have had, or under what injustice he might be suffering, 
his single-handed efforts before the courts, the Legislature, the land offices, or Congress, were scarcely 
heeded, and he could accomplish nothing. One man fighting for relief from obnoxious laws, or depart- 
ment rulings, and demanding a change, would not be recognized as representing an industry; but when 
all of the class identified with that industry band together in a common cause, and, through these 
representatives, detnand relief, the department, the Legislature, and Congress itself, miitit listen to 
their appeals, and give consideration to their requests. Under these circumstances, the American peo- 
ple, who are more powerful than these bodies of their own creation, will make themselves heard where 
the cause is just, as was ours, and their influence materially aids in the accomplishment of the 
desired ends. 

BRICP HISTORV OP THG ASSOCIAXIOJK. 

On the 18th day of November, 1891, the first meeting was held, and resulted in the Placer County 
Miners' Convention at Auburn, November 28th, to prepare for a State Convention to be held on 
January 20th, 1892. 

Among other things, a committee was appointed to issue an address to the people of the State, calling 
attention to the deplorable condition of the mining industry, and the measures of relief desired. 

After two days' work, the address was issued for publication in the newspapers. It was an appeal 
to the people of California, in behalf of the miners' cause, and had the effect of creating a favorable 
impression, which was borne out by the results of the State Convention. 

At the first meeting held to consider the subject, there were only sixteen men in this great city who 
attended or paid any attention to the matter. Just think of it, gentlemen. In a State founded on its 
gold mines, in a great city built by the gold mines, filled with millionaires and merchants who had 
made their fortunes in mining, only sixteen men could be found at that time who were willing to come 
forward and lend their names and influence toward rehabilitating a branch of the industry fallen into 
decadence through adverse judicial decision, and which had formerly poured ten millions of dollars 
ra new gold annually into the channels of trade in this city. Here was an investment of one hundred 
millions of dollars lying idle in our midst, unproductive, unused, and valueless. 

But those who had the work in hand were not dismayed. As one who was appointed a delegate 
from San Francisco to the State Convention declined, or dropped aside, another was chosen in his 
place, until finally the full quota was obtained. In the mountains they were eager to come, and no man 
refused, for they realized all there was at stake. 

Finally, on January 20th, 1892, the first State Convention of the miners of California was held in 
San Francisco, and was an overwhelming success. There was a complete revulsion of popular feeling. 

When our first convention adjourned and we organized the California Miners' Association, we at 
once realized that we had the assistance and moral support of the people and the press of the State. 
We were given a backing far beyond what was even expected. The Chamber of Commerce, the Board 
of Trade, and Board of Supervisors of San Francisco, passed resolutions endorsing our memorial and 
our objects, as did the Boards of Supervisors throughout the interior counties. The merchants and 
manufacturers of this city were wonderfully liberal in their donations of needful money to carry on 
our work, and money came from other places as well. The different county miners' associations 
responded liberally to our call for financial help, and the California Miners' Association was fairly and 
successfully launched, with public favor enlisted in its behalf. 

I undertake to say that no organization has ever accomplished such important results, with such 
small expenditures. No officer of the association has received one dollar from the treasury for pro- 
fessional services, nor has any one else connected with the management of its affairs. 

_ As to the future of this association, I have every confidence in it. There are many measures which 
will be of benefit to the mining industry of the State which still demand consideration at its hands. 
Prominent among them are the needs of a representative of the mining industry in the councils of the 
na,tion, for there should be a Secretary of Mines in the Cabinet, that our large and growing interests 
might be better guarded. Moreover, closer at home, there should be in the State University, where 
there is already a college of mines and professors of mining, one or more representatives of the mining 
interests in the Board of Regents. It should continue to lend its moral support and influence to the 
maintenance of the State Mining Bureau, which is now doing useful work in behalf of the mining 
industry of the State. 

The Mineral Lands Bill, which failed of passage at the last session of Congress, has been reintroduced 
and will come up for consideration at the next session in December. It can surely be passed if our 
members m the House of Representatives will take the matter in hand promptly. The appropriation of 
!P250,000_by the State, and of another $250,000 by Congress, are now available, and will soon be expended 
in the improvement of the rivers, and the construction of dams to prevent further encroachments of 
debris now in the streams, upon the navigable portions. Many hydraulic mines are now being operated 
under the provisions of the Caminetti law, and their number is daily increasing. We have now a State 
Debris Commission, which is cooperating with the Federal Commission in the conduct of the work of 
rehabilitating these mines. 

I have great faith in the future of the mining industry of California. This great industry is now 
advancing with rapid strides, and increasing its product between two and three millions of dollars every 
year. Those noble mountains which overlook our great valleys, and form the backbone of the State, are 
daily yielding their golden treasures to the enrichment of us all. More still remains hidden than has 
ever been taken out, and there is work for the sturdy miner for years to come. The blow of his pick 
will resound and reecho through those grand old cafions and ravines long after all of us shall have 
passed from the scene of our labors. 



MJ'/f^ 



NECESSITY FOR A NATIONAL DEPARTMENT OF MINES AND MINING. 

By- Hon. Tirey L. Kord. 

The movement for the creation of a National Executive Department of Mines and Mining, begun a 
few years since by the California Miners' Association, has been taken up by other organizations in 
different parts of the country, and is now being strongly and seriously urged upon the members of our 
National Congress. 

California, in common with this entire Western country, is especially and vitally interested in the 
movement, but not less so than should be the friends of the mining industry throughout the United States. 
In fact, It IS a matter that should engage the thoughtful attention of all good citizens. 

There exists at present no Executive Department of the National Government that renders any 
special aid to the mining industry, the lack of which is seriously felt and the need of which is growing 
annually more urgent. The State, Treasury and War Departments, established in 1789, supplemented 
by the Postal and Navy Departments in 1798, supplied the needs of that day. The Interior Department, 
created in 1849, had become a necessity, though no thought of the mining industry lay at the basis of its 
creation. To this department was entrusted the administration of all governmental affaiis relating to the 
General Land Office, the Patent Office, the Indian Office, the Pension Offi'^e, the Census Office, the 
Bureau of Education, the Bureau of Railroads, the Geological Survey, and numerous other matters 
relating to the pressing needs of a rapid industrial development. No consideration, however, was given 
to the industry then of such little moment, but since grown to proportions of such stupendous character. 
The lapse of half a century since the creation of the Interior Department has wrought a marvelous 
change. The population of our country has increased nearly four-fold, while its wealth has increased 
almost beyond the power of computation. Every portion of our Union has steadily advanced, but 
nowhere has there been such marvelous and astonishing rapidity of development as in this land beyond 
the M^ississippi. The mythical "Far West " of fifty years ago has suddenly become the center of the 
world's industrial progress. Five sparsely settled States have increased to nineteen great commonwealths, 
with two more knocking at the doors of Congress for admission. A small and unheeded delegation in 
Congress has increased in numbers until it comprises more than one-third of the Senate and an influential 
portion of the Plouse. 

Nor has the mining industry lagged behind in the general advance. In fact, it has led the grand 
industrial march and stands without a parallel in the rapidity of its growth and development. The annual 
yield of coal has increased from less than 4,000,000 tons in 1849 to nearly 187,000,000 tons in 1896. Iron 
has increased from 600,000 tons in 1850 to over 15,000,000 tons in 1896. Lead has increased from 18,000 
to 175,000 tons, and copper from less than 1,000 to over 212,000 tons. And so it has been throughout 
the long list of the mineral products of America. The precious metals tell an equally marvelous story. 
The annual gold yield has advanced from less than $5,000,000 in 1848 to nearly $53,000,000 in 
1896, with the virgin gold fields of Utah and Colorado and other Western States, supplemented by 
the prospective yield from far-oft' Alaska, ready to still further augment this enormous output. The 
production of silver in commercial quantities began with the memory of the present generation, yet its 
output in 1895 was over $70,000,000, from mines that were seemingly inexhaustible. When we come to 
view the mining industry as a whole our amazement becomes intense and statistics grow bewildering. 
From an annual yield of fifty years ago so modest that the public mind scarce gave it a thought, the mineral 
production of the United States has mounted up into the hundreds of millions, and is rapidly nearing the 
billion-dollar mark. In no other industry has there been such rapidity of development and growth, in no 
other industry are future possibilities greater. When other industries have declined, mining has steadily 
advanced. It has been the mainstay of hard times and the balance-wheel of industrial energy. It has 
quickened every avenue of trade and raised our Nation to a degree of independence not otherwise attain- 
able. It is equally the hand-maid of factory and of farm, while without it commerce would be bereft of 
its safest friend and surest ally. Nor is this all. It is to the credit of the mining industry that in the 
hour of our Nation's darkest peril, her waning credit was sustained by the enormous yield from the gold 
mines of California. 

Our Government can well afford to aid and encourage an industry that has done so much and upon 
which the future prosperity of our Nation so largely depends. But how shall this aid be extended. The 
first consideration is unity of action, a system with one controlling head from which uniformity of results 
may follow. The Mining Bureaus of the several States accomplish much good, and are valuable adjuncts 
in the development of the mining industry and the promotion of mining interests in genera). Their 
respective fields of labor, however, are bounded by State lines, and united action, under such conditions, 
can scarcely be expected. No efficient means for interchange of methods or results can be devised with- 
out some common source to which alike may go those having or desiring information. Only by means of 
a National Bureau can these requirements be fulfilled, and a complete and harmonious system be evolved 
from the present incomplete and isolated systems of the several States. 

Nor should the work thus briefly indicated be left to a subordinate branch of any existing department. 
This, in fact, is one of the evils of the present system. The Treasury Department, it is true, furnishes 
statistical information of some value, and the Interior Department is supposed to render some occasional 
aid ; but neither the Secretary of the Treasury nor the Secretary of the Interior can, in the very nature of 
things, devote the attention to the mining industry which its importance deserves. The Secretary of the 
Treasury is sufficiently engaged with problems of finance and the collection and disbursement of the vast 
revenues of the Government, while the Secretary of the Interior is overwhelmed with questions relating 
to the public lands, patents for inventions, Indian affairs, pensions, the census, and a hundred other sub- 
jects of but little less importance. The stupendous proportions to which the business of the Interior 
Department has grown renders it absolutely impossible for the head of that department to even acquaint 
himself with the needs of the mining industry. 

It is clear that the bureau sought to be established should have at its head a member of the Presi- 
dent's Cabinet who would at once have the ear of Congress and the confidence of the President. The 
importance of the mining industry demands that the Nation's Chief Executive should at all times be able 
to command the fullest and best information relating to its needs, and in no way could this be so well 
accomplished as through an Executive Department whose chief officer was admitted to the counsels of 
the President's official family. ^->. ^ >-^ 



San Francisco, Nov. iq, 1897. 



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SANTA MONICA, 

FOR VISITOR OR HOME-SEEKER. 



, Warmed by a southern sun and freshened by 

the fanning of the ocean's breezes, Santa Monica, 
the gem of the Coast, enthralls the visitor. He 
comes again and again, and finally transfers his 
household gods to this Pacific town and settles 
j^, ,, down in peace and contentment. The town is not 

sleepy, but if you want to drowse you may do so at 
any time of the year lying on the golden sands of 
the beach. If you want a taste of the goodfellow- 
ship and bustle of town or city life, you will find 
both right here in Santa Monica and but a half 
' hour's ride to Los Angeles. The streets are well 

kept and beautiful, and Ocean Avenue, skirting the 
beach for several miles, is noted as one of the finest drives in the country. Many 
wealthy and noted people have lovely, picturesque residences here, and all the year 
round society finds its entertainment. As the temperature is delightfully equable, out- 
of-door sports may be enjoyed winter or summer, and surf bathing is safe and pleas- 
ant at almost any lime of the year. The North Beach Bath 
House is splendidly equ a ipped, and tanks where 
you can enjoy a wa ^k rni or cold swim are 





renewed with salt 

day. The elec 

from Los An 

half hour 

night, and ,. 

ern Pacific 

Fe each give 

service. In 

pavilion, 

are served 

sons, and 

become noted 

the West for th 

The Hotel Area 

the very edge of the 

beach, is delightful in its 

ing in its hospitality. The cot 




sea water every 

trie cars run 

geles every 

until mid- 

the South- 

and Santa 

splendid 

the large 

fish dinners 

at all sea- 

they have 

throughout 

eir excellence. 

dia, built upon 

mesa overhanging the 

environment and charm- 

tage homes, which are peren- 



nial rose bowers with their cypress hedges and semi-tropical shade trees, are one of 

the chief delights of the place. The town is growing in a steady, solid way, and 

property is rapidly increasing in value. There are two important business streets, 

electric lights, good fire service, and all the improvements of modern times. At the 

mammoth wharf all is bustle and noise with the 

arrival and departure of passengers and freight, 

and yet a few rods walk will bring you into a bosky 

canon where you are as removed from the world, to 

all appearances, as though in the heart of the , | 

Rockies. There are a number of these cool, fern- j 

carpeted canons in the surrounding hills, and here i ^ yijj*)(*' *« 

the young people indulge at any time in the old- '** ' ''" 

fashioned picnic or in a dance on a moonlight night. 

The Chamber of Commerce of Santa Monica has 

issued an artistic booklet, which all inquirers are 

welcome to. 




SANTA CLARA COUNTY. 

Area, 1,754 Square Miles. Unequaled in the World 
for the Variety and Extent of its Products. 

The Granary and the Garden of the world 
The Land of Sunshine, Fruit and Flowers 



FACTS ABOUT SANTA CLARA CO. 



SAN JOSE AND VICINITY. 




NOTE THE LOCATION OF SAN JOSE. 



property is 1935,650. Its bonded indebtedness is but |c 
every $[.00 it owes. Its average annual interest is 4>^ 



Santa Clara Co. has iii miles of railroad. 

Santa Clara Co. contains 1,754 sq. miles. 

Over |i, 300 an acre have been netted in 
one year on Santa Clara County cherries. 

The annual expenditure for road purposes 
in Santa Clara County exceeds $100,000. 

Number of horses in Santa Clara Co., 16,- 
624; cattle, 25,197; sheep, 2,972; hogs, 3,742. 

Santa Clara County has the largest Uni- 
versity, — Stanford, — with an endowment of 
J5i5,ooo 000. 

The assessed quantity of wines and bran- 
dies in Santa Clara County for 1895 was 
1,991,600 gallons. 

No other section of the world produces 
the varieties of fruit that are grown in Santa 
Clara County. 

In Santa Clara County there is not a 
month during the year when fruit of some 
kind does not ripen. 

Santa Clara County has the lowest rate 
of taxation of any county in California save 
one — Yolo County. 

Santa Clara County products will average, 
of the same area per acre, the highest of 
any products in the world 

Santa Clara County not only produces 
the most fruit, but is the greatest wine- 
producing county in California. 

The prune output of Santa Clara County 
is nearly three times greater than the entire 
product of America, all the remainder of 
California included. 

Santa Clara County has more elegant 
residences, more beautiful country homes, 
more county wealth per capita, than any 
other county in California. 

The value of Santa Clara County's public 
44,500. It thus has over I7.00 in property for 
per cent. 



TWO OF THE MEN WHO HAVE HELPED TO MAKE SAN JOSE. 

The oldest and most influential newspaper published in San Jose is the Daily Mercury^ owned 
and edited by Chas. M. Shortridge. Since he obtained control of it the improvements have been 
constant, until it has become a thoroughly up-to-date newspaper, well equipped in all its departments 
and completely in accord with the progressive spirit of the day. While keeping in close touch with 
the vital questions of the hour, State and National, the Mercury, under Mr. Shortridge's management, 
has devoted special attention to local interests, and, on account 
of the enterprising stand it has taken upon all subjects tending 
to further the prosperity of the city, has become a potent factor 
in molding public opinion. 

In recognition of his services in the cause of Republicanism, 
both in the editorial columns of his newspaper and on the 
stump, the many friends of Mr. Shortridge have urged him to 
become an aspirant for the Congressional nomination. As his 
public spiritedness and geniality have made him popular among 
all classes and parties, it is safe to assume that a nomination 
will be equivalent to an election. 

The largest mercantile establishment in San Jose, and one 
of the largest in California, occupies about a quarter of a long 
block, with entrances on three streets. It is owned by O. A. 
Hale & Co., a fim that controls and operates a series of stores 
extending from Sacramento and San Francisco to Los Angeles. 
The President of the company is O. A. Hale, one of the 
shrewdest and most progressive business men on the Coast. 
He has unlimited faith in San Jose, and every important scheme 
for public improvement has found him a zealous and influential 
advocate. Mr. Hale was recently reappointed one of the trus- 
tees for the California Hospital for the Insane at Agnews. In 
making a nonpartisan selection Governor Budd cast about for 
a thoroughly representative citizen and found such a one in 
O A Hale Chas. M. Shortridge. 




FERTILE LANDS OF SACRAMENTO COINTV 

^SCMttll^tftO ^^^ 619,520 acres of land, all good productive soil and not to be excelled 
i7/KUHUi ^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ other county in the State. In every part of the count}' 
VvHiliy g^j-g ^Q ijg found citrus and deciduous fruits, nuts, grains and vegetables, 
and occasionally the date, banana and palm trees. All seem to prosper. The lands along 
the Sacramento, American and Cosumnes rivers are deep, rich black loam, commonly 
called bottom land. As a rule, adjoining the bottom lands are second bottom lands, a 
deep, rich sandy loam. Then come the plains lands, which are not always deep soil, but 
which are very rich and fertile. Next follow the rolling lands. All of this hill land is 
good, and the greater portion is a deep gravel loam, reddish and of excellent quality. 

The bottom lands yield enormous and profitable crops of oranges, peaches, pears, 
prunes, cherries, beans, common and sweet potatoes, vegetables of all kinds, hops, alfalfa, etc. 
The second bottom lands are producing very profitable crops of apricots, peaches, oranges, 
lemons, grapes, raisins, nuts of all kinds, strawberries, raspberries and blackberries. The 
French prune and plum do well on this land. The plains lands are better adapted to 
peaches, berries and grapes, and in some cases the olive, orange, lemon and other similar 
fruits are very profitable. The rolling or hill lands are especially adapted to the growth 
of the olive. Wherever an olive tree has been planted on these lands, it has always 
thriven without the aid of irrigation; but, like other trees, it must have good cultivation 
and care if you wish it to bring large returns. The fig, orange and lemon give very 
handsome returns, but the orange and lemon must be irrigated. The almond and the 
apricot are regular and profitable bearers on this land. Light irrigation helps them. These 
rolling lands are among the most valuable in the county. They are warm and productive; 
water for irrigating purposes can be brought to them at a very low cost; the soil is deep 
and good, aud very productive when irrigated. For years much of them have been used 
for pasturing sheep and cattle, and are now in prime condition for the fruit grower. This 
land is held at from $10 to $30 per acre. 

According to the latest statistics, there are over 14,000 acres of trees and vineyards 
in this county, — 12,000 acres in bearing and 2,000 acres not yet in bearing. The annual 
green fruit product is about 90,000,000 pounds. Of all the fruits, peaches lead in acreage 
and production; then in order come pears, grapes, prunes, plums, apricots, almonds, oranges, 
cherries, figs and olives. Immense amounts of strawberries, raspberries and blackberries 
are grown around Sacramento. This county produces about two-thirds of the Eastern 
deciduous fruit shipments of the State. 

The reclamation of lands from the floods of the Sacramento River has progressed to an 
extent which would require a volume to describe. The immense pumping, ditching and 
dredging plants are models for the world. Some of the richest of these districts are within 
the limits of Sacramento County, and all are within the area of the trade of the City of 
Sacramento. Tests have been made, and it has been demonstrated that 100,000 acres in 
Sacramento County are adapted to growing sugar beets, one-half of which is available. 
Proposals for building a sugar beet factory and refinery of capacity requiring the planting 
of 10,000 acres are now going on. 

i/WV of '^^^ transportation and commercial advantages of Sacramento can be seen 

(4<^l*^tM(>HtA ^"^ fully appreciated by a few minutes inspection of a map of California. 

^(IVrdnivniv Sacramento, the capital of the State, is a center for railways, and is 
located on the vSacramento, the principal river of California. The shipments to the East 
are larger than from any other point, excepting San Francisco. 

Electric lines convey the results of water power into the city from two never-failing falls. 
From Folsom, twenty-two miles distant, at present 2,000 horse-power is obtained, which will 
be trebled soon. From Newcastle, twenty-eight miles distant, 800 horse-power is obtained, 
which will also be trebled. The Gas Company has a steam electric plant of 1,500 horse-power. 

"'" '"ZTw^w^r^.. Sacramento ChamDer of commerce 



THE REALTY SYNDICATE.... '* lt=5T 



i>sr ^:ii.a 



T.-^„ -^ 



RfalEsfare'E/crrrir R/tilwayi 




A55ETS-5ept. 30 

Real Estate, 

Stocks and Bonds, • . . 

Bills Receivable, 

Office Furniture, 

Cash in Banks and Office, 



STATEMENT. 

1895 

. . $921,528.00 



I-I/VBIL1TIE5— 

Received from Investors, 

Mortgages, 

Bills Payable, .... 
Capital Stock Paid In, . 
Surplus, 



59,924.00 

20,000.00 
$1,001,452.00 



$201,294.00 

5,534.00 

714,700.00 

79,924.00 

$1,001,452.00 



ISS>6 

$1,100,629.31 

803,934.24 

140,982.69 

752.25 

24,693.79 

$2,070,992.28 

$ 198,619.93 

229,974.00 

173,516.77 

1,358,350.00 

120,531.58 



$2,070,992.28 



1S97 

$1,547,381.50 

1,414,244.28 

150,411.40 

1,376.87 

33,723.92 

$3,147,137.97 

$ 694,738.87 

301,528.00 

318,321.11 

1,610,350.00 

222,199.99 

$3,147,137.97 



Principal Capital Stockholdefs* 



FRANK M. SMITH, . . . Pres. Pacific Coast Borax Co. 

W. H. MARTIN, Capitalist, Ballard & Martin 

H. C. MINER, Miner's Theatres, New York 

WM. G. HEN3HAW, . . Vice-Pres. Union Savings Bank 
WM. J. DINGEE, .... Pres. The Oakland Water Co. 

J. C. WINANS, Manufacturer, 220 Fremont St. 

P. C. HAVENS, Vice-President 

W. FRANK PIERCE, Pres. Blue Lakes Water Co., S. F. 



D. D. HARRIS Merchant 

C. A. MURDOCK, C. A. Murdock & Co. 

C. E. TINKHAM, Supt. Sierra Lumber Co. 

E. A. HERON Real Estate 

L. G. HARRIER, City Attorney, Vallejo 

GEO. L. NUSBAUMER, . . Co. Surveyor, Alameda Co. 

DELOS PALMER, Capitalist, New York 

CHARLES CAMDEN, Capitalist, Oakland 



THE PROPERTIES by THE REALTY SYNDICATE include every elementofvaluethat secures to real estate the features 
n\SFMPr> distinguishing investment from speculation, to wit : Location in the natural and necessary line of 

(jwiNbU residence growth of a large city. Large Tracts, suited to subdivision for retail buyers, thereby se- 

curing the wholesaler's profit. 'Low Cost, purchased at the most favorable time, at a cash valuation below the market. 
Control of Transit Facilities, consisting of the ownership of electric roads, the most effective means of enhancing 
the values of suburban property. They were purchased at a phenomenally low cash cost in 1895 and 1896, offering in a 
future legitimate growth in values a margin of profit unequaled in the realty market of any city. Preferred Share Cer- 
tificates are issued by The Realty Syndicate for any amount from $100 to $10,000, payable in one sum or in installments 
in advance. 

An investor with The Realty Syndicate is not a capital stockholder, and is free from any liability. 

SEND MONEY TO CORPORATION BY CHECK OR MONEY ORDER. 



Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company. 

A PRODUCT lOF CALIFORNIA. 

Twenty-nine years ago a number of the leading business men of California incorporated The Pacific 
Mutual Life Insurance Company. The late Senator Stanford became its first President and held its Policy 
No. I. From the beginning success attended The Pacific Mutual, and the Company soon gained recogni- 
tion as one of the leading financial institutions of the Pacific Coast. This position has been well maintained, 
as indicated by its last Annual Statement, January I, 1 897, which showed assets of $3,083,000, while its 
payments on policy-holders^ account then exceeded $8,500,000. 

The Pacific Mutual has its home office in the Company's own building, northeast comer Montgomery 
and Sacramento Streets, San Francisco, and is established in twenty-four States. Its popularity is attested 
by its income for the year (896, which was $1,077,045. Regardless of the financial depression of the 
past few years. The Pacific Mutual made steady progress. In the year 1896 it added $150,000 to its 
assets, while marked increase was made in surplus, premium receipts, interest receipts, payments to policy- 
holders, insurance written and paid for, and insurance in force. 

The Company's policies are unequaled for liberality of terms and conditions. They embrace every 
feature that goes to make up a perfect contract of insurance. In no essential are they wanting. They 
are recognized as the best that can be produced for the policy-holder with due regard for safety. 

The Directors of the Company, whose names are appended, are well-known business men of California, 
whose knowledge of and experience in the business tend to best possible results for the policy-holders. This, 
combined with the security afforded by the stringent insurance laws of California and the legal organization 
of the Company, gives advantages unexcelled by any other Company, and makes a policy in The Pacific 
Mutual the peer of any. 

DIRECTORS. 

Geo. W. Beaver, Capitalist. W. H. Crocker, Pres. Crocker-Wool worth Nat. Bank. W. R. Cluness, Physician. 
L. P. Dbexler, Capitalist. James Carolan, Retired Merchant. j. f. Houghton, Capitalist. 

James Irvine, Capitalist. D. W. Earl, Forwarding and Commission Merchant. Hugh M. LaRue, Capitalist. 

Wm. R. Sherwood, Capitalist. Chas. N. Fox, Attorney-at-Law. 

Samuel Lavenson, Locke & Lavenson. Geo. A. Moore, President of the Company. 

Geo. W. Scott, Scott & Van Arsdale. Henry T. Scott, Pres. Union Iron Works. 



BEND COLONY, Tehama County, Cal. 

WINTERLESS CLIMATE; MOUNTAIN SCENERY; PROLIFIC SOIL; ABUNDANCE OF 
WATER; CHEAP FUEL; COMFORT, HEALTH AND HAPPINESS. 

Located in the very center of one of the most beautiful semi-tropic valleys in the world. Second in size 
and first in fertility of aU on the Pacific Coast. Its scenery is magnificent and awe-inspiring in its grandeur. 

Though ever in sight of the seven-thousand-foot snow cap, reared fourteen thousand feet aloft by 
mighty Shasta, the beautiful valley has a winterless climate of Southern California. 

Popular resorts are w^ithin and around it. Game is plentiful and fishing good. 

The great horseshoe bend of the Sacramento River gives it a name and bounds three sides of 
the tract of about three square rmles upon which it is built. 

Its bottom lands are a rich, black, sandy loam, twelve to thirty feet deep, underlaid with a stratum 
of gravel, yielding pure, cool water. Another soil is that reddish, decomposed granite, so very prolific in 
California for citrus fruits. 

Throughout this State irrigation is essential. Ample water has a great value; abundance for 
irrigation has been provided under a model system, and is deeded with the land in quantities sufficient 
for all purposes and no rental. 

Here alfalfa, best of all forage plants, grows luxuriantly, yielding three or four crops per year, 
with a ready market of from $8 to $12 per ton. "Wheat, one of the main crops of the valley, yields 
twenty-five bushels to the acre, barley and oats about thirty. Potatoes, tobacco and grapes grow 
wonderfully. 

The largest single vineyard in the world is only a few miles away. Both land and climate are 
perfectly adapted to all kinds of deciduous fruits and nuts. Orange, lemon and fig do admirably. The 
orange matures from four to six weeks earlier than in Southern California. 

This Colony is five miles from the railroad and county-seat, whch is a thriving town of four thou- 
sand progressive population. Many families are already settled in the Colony ; all have orchards, gardens 
and stock. A good school and postoffice are maintained in the center of the tract. 

Timber is plentiful and very cheap. Malaria is unknown. The locality, in short, is truly ideal 
for the upbuilding of a home where comfort, health and happiness are the objects desired. 

For further descripti've ma.tter, prices a.nd terms, alddress 

McCOLLOUGH & BROKAW, OWNERS, red bluff, cal. 



Personally Conducted Excursions Weekly 
over the picturesque 

r^ ouTHERN Pacific Company's 



^ 



UNSET, OQDEN -« SHASTA ROUTES 



THROUGH TOURIST CARS 
FROM WASHINGTON, D. C, and PITTSBURG, PA. 

TO LOS ANGELES and SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. 

VIA NEW ORLEANS 

WITHOUT CHANGE 

THE MOST COMFORTABLE AND ECONOMICAL WAY OF TRAVELING 
BETWEEN THE ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC COASTS 



3Qnset Limited 



THE WORLD'S MATCHLESS TRAIN THE BEST EQUIPPED 

ELEGANT SERVICE DINING CAR MEALS A LA CARTE 

FROM 

BOSTON, NEW YORK, PHILADELPHIA, BALTIMORE, WASHINGTON, 

TO 

LOS ANGELES and SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. 



FOR FURTHER INFORMATION REGARDING RATES, TICKETS, AND SLEEPING=CAR ACCOMMODATIONS, 
ETC., CALL ON OR ADDRESS THE FOLLOWING SOUTHERN PACIFIC AGENTS AT 

BOSTON, MASS. PHILADELPHIA, PA. NEW YORK, N.Y. BALTIMORE, MD. WASHINGTON, D.C. 
9 State Street. 109 South Third Street. 849 Broadway. 209 East German St. 511 Pennsylvania Ave. 



CAPITOLA-BY-THE-SEA, 

BY ISABEL H. RAYMOND. 

The shores of Monterey Bay 
present the most perfect combi- 
nation of charming and equable 
winter climate, picturesque va- 
ried scenery, and opportunities 
for delightful diversion of any 
portion of California. And 
search, if you will, every mile 
of the curving shore of the bay, 
with its fine mountains in the 
background, and no more beau- 
tiful spot will be found than 
Capitola, the little resort which 
nestles by the bay and climbs 
up over the cliffs along whose 
grassy downs the pretty cot- 
tages are scattered. The yel- 
low curve of the bathing beach, 
where on every sunny winter 
day the surf can be enjoyed, is 
broken by the mouth of Soquel 
Creek, where boating and trout 
fishing are the attractions. 

There are hot and cold salt water baths under cover if you choose. There are sailing and salmon fishing, besides 
the taking of a score of other sorts on the bay, with the Santa Lucia, El Gabilan and Santa Cruz mountains filling 
the horizon. 

There are charming country and seaside walks and a hundred miles of the finest drives in the world— forest 
mountain and coast. ' 

The temperature is wonderfully equable-winter average of mercury 53 degrees above zero, only 10 degrees lower 
than summer average; no snow; heliotrope, carnations and roses blossom all winter out-of-doors. 

Hotel Capitola, situated at the edge of the bay, is the handsomest and most delightful resort in the State. 
Ample accommodations for six hundred guests; sunny suites with bath; single rooms finely furnished; large and 
handsome office, big fireplaces, electric lights; glass-covered porch; fine glass club house, built into cliff and right 
over the water, with a roof garden of tropical plants; ball room, with stage for concerts and theatricals; elegant 
drawing room; handsomest dining room in the world— every table looks out on the bay. Messrs. Hepburn & Terry 
proprietors. Telegraph, telephone, express, postoffice, money order, livery stable and all conveniences. Table and 
cuisine under charge of that famed chef, Hepburn. 

Capitola connects by two trains each way daily from San Francisco, also with the city of Santa Cruz, five miles 
distant, and by steamer from all coast cities. 




Hotel Capitola. 



PACIFIC OCKAN HOUSE. 

E. B. PIXLEY, PROPRIETOR. 




Is the first-class hotel located on the 
principal avenue of the beautiful City of 
Santa Cruz on Monterey Bay. Three sto- 
ries in height, with pleasant rooms and 
suites, handsome office, elevator, excellent 
table, and every comfort required by trav- 
elers and visitors. An exceptional charm 
is lent to this hostelry by the cheery pres- 
ence of Mrs. Pixley and her daughters, 
who devote themselves to the comfort and 
pleasure of guests. 

Santa Cruz is famed for its pictur- 
esque situation and environment, fine 
winter climate, many flower gardens, 
abloom all winter, good pavements and 
sidewalks; magnificent drives and walks 
in all directions; unique and magnificent 
grove of big trees, only five miles distant; 
ample livery accommodations. Connects 
by two railways, broad and narrow gauge, 
with San Francisco, all the way through 
fine scenery. Coast steamers southward 
and northward. A lovely and beautiful 
winter home. 



Pacific Ocean House 




Pacific Congress Springs. 



Located in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains, 800 feet 
above the sea, sheltered from winds and away from fogs. The 
famous orchards and vineyards of the Santa Clara Valley are on 
one side, the vineclad foothills and forest-covered mountains on the 
other. 

California's most perfect climate; no mosquitoes or other pests. 

The hotel is comfortable, modern and well kept. The springs 
yield the best mineral water in California, either for drinking or bathing. 

Easy of access; only two and one-half hours from San Francisco 
or Oakland; one hour from San Jose. 

Carriages meet trains at Los Gatos. 

OPEN ALL THE YEAR ROUND. 
For further information, printed matter, etc., address 

JOHN S. MATHESON, Manager. 

'Pacific Congress Springs, Santa. Clara Co., Cat. 



THE WOMAN'S NORTHWEST MINING S INVESTMENT ASSOCIATION. 



Home Office: Van Valkenberg Block, SPOKANE, WASH. 



San Francisco Office: Rooms 66-67, 120 Sutter Street. 




Okeilla Bebthand, President. 



Anna May Kkiskr, Gen. Manager, 



Waltkink Willis, Asst. Manager. Mary A. Davis, Vice-President. 



The Woman's Northwest Mining & Investment Association is an enterprise worthy of the Incoming century. It was 
incorporated in the City of Spokane, Wash., December 3, 1896, under the laws of the State of Washington and British Columbia, 
for the purpose of buying, selling and developing mines. 

The Officers and Trustees of the Association are as follows : Orrilla Bertrand, the President and Treasurer of the 
Association, has a practical knowledge of mining, having lived many years in mining camps. For the two terms for which her 
husband was elected as Treasurer of the City of Spokane, she was deputized to fill the duties of that office, which she did to the 
entire satisfaction of the public. Like the other ladies of the Association she is popular in social circles, and has a high sense of 
honor. Mary A. Davis, the Vice-President of the Association, is a lady of great force of character and business insight, has had a 
wide business experience, and being conversant with everything pertaining to practical mining her services will be Invaluable to 
the Association. She is the wife of one of Spokane's most prominent business men. 

Anna May Reiser, the General Manager and Assistant Treasurer of the Association, is the leading spirit of the enterprise. 
Being a shrewd young business woman of great perseverance and push, and having a thorough knowledge of the business she has 
taken, she is the right person in the right place. She was formerly a Chicago lady, and has had considerable experience at 
newspaper work. 

Florence N. Kent, the Secretary of the Association, is a young woman of unusual force. She has for a number of years 
been engaged as Principal of the Bryant School in Spokane, Wash. 

Waltrine Willis, the Assistant Manager and Assistant Secretary of the Association, is a woman of marked ability and 
wide business experience. She will accompany her husband to the Klondyke District, early In March, in the interests of the 
Association. As her husband, who is a successful mining man, will go with a large party of prospectors in his charge, she will 
have exceptional opportunities for getting the Association in on the grouud floor if any strikes are made. 

With such a force of capable women in charge, the success of the enterprise is assured. The Association has already 
bought properties in the Kootenai District, B. C, and in the Libby District, Montana, which it has proceeded to develop with the 
view of making them dividend payers in the near future. The head office of the Association is located In Spokane, Wash. 

The Association has also an office in San Francisco, Cal., which is devoted to the bonding and selling of mines. This office 
is In charge of the General Manager. This branch of the business is proving profitable, and some of the finest paying properties 
have been placed in their hands, because of their excellent standing with capitalists and investors, both in this country and 
Europe. The mines of the Association will soon be on a paying basis, at which time the treasury stock will all be retired from 
the market. A limited amount of treasury stock can now be secured, and anyone desiring a safe and profitable investment would 
do well to call at its office or send for a prospectus soon. The investment is rendered doubly safe from the fact that every 
investor has an interest in every property owned or to be acquired by the Association; hence, should one property be disappointing, 
it can be made up in another, and no loss felt. 

All stock in the Association is absolutely nonassessable, by reason of the British Columbia la-ws. 
The properties owned by the Association were purchased with money subscribed by the incorporators. 

The business of the Association will be conducted on principles, which, if more generally adopted, the mining Industry 
would speedily be restored to the place it deserves in public esteem, as one of the noblest of our industries. 



S. C. BIGELOW, President 
ARTHUR A, SMITH, Vice-President 



CYRUS W. CARMANY, Cashier and Secretary 
EDWIN BONNELL, Assistant Cashier 



Savings and [ pan Soc iety 

IQJ MONTGOMERY STREET 

Formerly 619 Clay Street Corner of Sutter Street Saa Praaclsco, Cal. 

The Oldest Incorporated Savings Bank in the State 



Guarantee Capital, $1,000,000 
Capital Stock, Paid Up in Gold Coin, ..... 

Reserve Fund, ........ 

Directors 



$750,000.00 

175,000.00 

$950,000.00 



S. G. BiGELOW 

Isaac Hy^e 



Horace Davis G. E. Goodman 

Arthur A. Smith F. H. Woods 

Wii.Lis E. Davis 



A. N. Drown 
E. C. Burr 



Loans made at Lowest Rates on Approved Collaterals and on City and Country Real Estate 
Term and Ordinary Deposits Received 




mV(\ 50bfl 5PR1NQ5 



THIS favorite watering place, summer resort and mountain Spa, still maintains its supremacy 
as the leading health and pleasure resort of the Pacific Coast. It is the most healthful of 
our pleasure abodes. This was officially determined and declared by the commission of learned 
doctors appointed by the Legislature of California to select a suitable locality for the erection of a 
State Hospital for Consumptives. This body of medical savants consumed two years in their investi- 
gations. They examined every portion of the State, east and west and from the northern line to 
the southern boundary. They took into consideration all the elements that affect the lungs — dry- 
ness and humidity of the atmosphere, its rarity and density, heat and cold. After having given 
all points due consideration, they finally reported in favor of the neighborhood of Napa Soda Springs, 
on the East Napa Range. The mean temperature of that point for July is 74 degrees, and for 
January 54 degrees. These designations are considered the best in the State for consumptive 
patients or those afflicted with bronchial, asthmatic or other pulmonary complaints. 

An admitted medical authority on health, in pointing out the "Best Climate for Invalids in 
California," says: "So far as statistics are obtainable here, we can safely say that the mountain 
ridge east of Napa Valley— it may be called the East Napa Range — is unparalleled in the com- 
bination of dryness of the atmosphere, with mildness and equability of temperature, and fitness 
for camping and spending the greater part of the year in the open air. From one thousand to fifteen 
hundred feet above the sea is the most desirable altitude. We believe that no other part of the globe 
equals the East Napa Ridge as a resort for consumptives.^'' 

The waters of these springs have been on the market for thirty-five years, and during all that 
time have been freely used by the most successful physicians in the sick room, who unhesitatingly 
give their willing testimony in its behalf. 

From a late number of the Pacific Medical fournal we take the following : "As an auxiliary to 
proper medical treatment in gastric catarrh,, torpidity of the bowels, kidney and bladder disorders, 
anaemia, etc , etc., as well as a refreshing wholesome table water, nothing on earth excels Napa Soda." 

Nothing has been forgotten to give pleasure and comfort to the guests. Winding paths lead 
with gentle grade to waterfalls and commanding peaks; cozy retreats invite to their grateful shade ; 
lawn tennis and croquet grounds tempt the gallant beaux and belles; swings serve the children, and a 
band of trained "burros" (donkeys) just set the young masters and misses wild with their delight- 
ful abandon. 

A new swimming pool, with naturally- heated water, adds its tempting luxury to the other attractions. 

On the whole, there is no place on the Pacific Coast that offers more inducements for a visit 
than Napa Soda Springs. 



Address 



N/IP/I 50D/1 5PRmQ5, 



Napa County, California^ 



REDONDO BEACH, CAL. 







■^T is acknowl- 
J^ edged by all 
gl that this year- 
round resort 
possesses natural 
attractions which 
are unexcelledon 
the Pacific Coast. 
Situated on a 
horseshoe bay, 
from whence the 
name Redondo 
(round) is de- 
rived, the mag- 
nificent hotel 
which bears that 
name commands 
a view of the Pa- 
cific with its busy 
shippingand fish- 
ing scenes on the 
one hand, while 
the promontories 
known as Point 
Dumas and Point 
Vincent bound 
the view to the 
north and south, 
and the beautiful 
San Gabriel Valley extends out to the eastward. The rolling contour of Redondo gives to it a distinctive 
charm which applies to no other resort on this Coast. For, rising in terraces from the water's edge, every 
location is sightly, and the general effect is most ideal for a pleasure resort by the sea. 

While Redondo Beach is young in years, it has gained the general favor of the 61ite of I,os Angeles, 
who tax the capacity of the great hotel in the summer months. None have visited Hotel Redondo but to 
sing its praise, and the many who return each year to enjoy its sundry attractions bear evidence of its 
real merits. ■■•■,::.'■• THE CLIMATE OF REDONDO IS UNSURPASSED IN THE ENTIRE WORLD, and its advan- 
tages of location have destined this beach to become, under ordinary conditions, the "NEWPORT" of 
the Pacific Coast as well as the principal shipping point for Southern California. 

The peculiar formation of the water front, a deep submarine canyon heading at Redondo, gives to 
the place remarkable commercial advantages which are fast bringing it into prominence before the 
shipping world. Two lines of railroad, the Southern California Railway (Santa Fe) and lyos Angeles & 
Redondo Railway, run from the wharves to I,os Angeles and connect with all points in the interior and the 
East. Surrounded by every comfort known to first-class modern hostelries, guests of the Redondo Hotel, 
within an hour's ride of I<os Angeles (the second city on the Coast), can enjoy absolute quiet and content- 
ment, or profit by the various forms of amusement that are at hand. One of the largest warm salt water 
swimming tanks on the Coast and a beautiful beach for surf bathing attract many at all times of the year 
who are fond of aquatic sports. And fishing, boating, riding and driving, and tennis on the finest court in 
the State, contribute to the many forms of recreation that are enjoyed by visitors to this resort. To the 
lovers of flowers, ten acres of carnations at Redondo are a sight well worth the seeing. This favorite flower 
reaches its utmost perfection in the soil of Redondo, and cut flowers and plants shipped from its gardens to 
all points in the United States have established the superiority and reputation of '" Redondo Carnations." 

For general 
all-round com- 
fort, recreation, 
and enjoyment, 

THE TOURIST 
CAN ILL AFFORD 
TO PASS 
REDONDO BY, 
AS ITS MANY 
CHARMS APPEAL 
TO EVERY 
TASTE. 

Modern ingenui- 
ty seems to have 
combined with 
nature to make of 
this favored spot 
all and more than 
is claimed for it. 




G/ILIFOF(NIA 

y I MIXED 



Santa Fe 



ON THB 



Leaves SAN FRANCISCO 4.30 p.m. 

** LOS ANGELES 8.00 a.m. 

*' PASADENA 8.25 a.m. 

** SAN BERNARDINO 9.50 a.m. 

Arrives DENVER II.I5 a.m. 

*' KANSAS CITY 6.55 p.m. 

** ST. LOUIS 7.00 a.m. 

*' CHICAGO 9.43 a.m. 



Monday and Thursday 
Tuesday and Friday 
Tuesday and Friday 
Tuesday and Friday 
Thursday and Sunday 
Thursday and Sunday 
Friday and Monday 
Friday and Monday 



IT IS A 



Superb Train 



WITH ACCOMMODATIONS FOR FIRST-CLASS PASSENGERS ONLY 



INCLUDING DINING CARS under harvevs management 
BUFFET SMOKING CARS 
PULLMAN PALACE SLEEPING CARS 



This Train is in addition to the Daily Overland Express 



JNO. J. BYRNE, 

General Passenger Agent. 
Los Angeles, Cal. 



H. K. GREGORY, 

Assistant General Passenger Agent, 
Los Angeles Cal. 



Gunaidcb^Dundscbu mine £o. 



CHARLES BUNDSCHU, President. 
CARL GUNDLACH, Vice-President. 
HENRY GUNDLACH, Secretary. 



Vineyard Ppoprietors " Rhinefarm," Sonoma. 



J. GUNDLACH & CO 




X3e:.^vxj:be«.s .A^Triy sxxzx>f>E;xi.s» 



CALIFORNIA WINES r^' BRANDIES 



Selected Vintages of 
Choice Old Table Wines. 

ALL THE FINEST TYPES CF SAUTERNES, RHINE WINE, BURGUNDY AND BORDEAUX VARIETIES AT LOWEST MARKET RATES. 

OF-RICES 

CITY DEPARTMENT: BACCHUS WINE VAULTS: EASTERN BRANCH: 

Cor. Second aad Market Sts., 432-444 Bryant Street, Cor. Watts and Washington Sts., 

SAN FRANCISCO. SAN FRANCISCO. NEW YORK. 



i ♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦ M M ♦♦♦♦♦ M ♦ M t ♦ »»»444» ♦♦»♦♦♦»-( 



-t-M"M-»--f ^M-f ^ 



$4bp^I5s 




oivB Bivjo^rs I 



Both the method and results when 
Syrup of Figs is taken; it is pleasant 
and refreshing to the taste, and acts 
gently yet promptly on the Kidneys, 
Liver and Bowels, cleanses the system 
effectually, dispels colds, headaches and 
fevers, and cures habitual constipation. 
Syrup of Figs is the only remedy of its 
kind ever produced, pleasing to the taste 
and acceptable to the stomach, prompt in its action and truly beneficial in its 
effects. Prepared only from the most healthy and agreeable substances, its 
many excellent qualities commend it to all and have made it the most 
popular remedy known. 

Syrup of Figs is for sale in 50-cent bottles by all leading druggists. Any 
reliable druggist who may not have it on hand will procure it promptly for 
one who wishes to try it. Do not accept any substitute. 



California Fig Syrup Co. 



LOUISVILLE, KY. SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. 

► MM » MM t ♦ ♦ t M ♦♦♦♦-♦-♦♦♦»♦ ^^^^.M-^^ • 



NEW YORK, N. Y. 



CosJlngeks infirmary 



CONDUCTED BY THE 



SISTERS OF CHARITY 



# THIS institution is situated on the hills overlooking the city of Los Angeles, and commands an extensive 
^ and beautiful view of the surrounding mountains and valleys. The building is entirely new and built on 

most approved plan. It has all the appointments 

______ _ of a first-class hospital, and all the requirements 

^,---''^ ~^^ . and conveniences of a Home lor Invalids. Its loca- 

^ " ^ tion makes it peculiarly adapted as a 

sanitarium for people vyith respiratory 
and nervous diseases. Parties irrespec- 
tive of creed or nationality are received. 




Eastern Invalids seeking rest 
and restoration in tlie famous 
Soutiiern California Climate 
should secure rooms before ar- 
riving. 



ANY REPUTABLE PHYSICIAN 
May maintain and treat 
Private Patients in this 
Institution. 



The Charges will vary according to 
rooms, but will be as reasonablb as 
possible. 

FOR TBRMS, INQUIRE AT INPIR/HARV 



BEAUDRY PARK, West End of Alpine Street, 



LOS ANGELES, CAL. 




Best Equipped Hotel in Southern California 
American Plan 



Hotel 
Brewster 

J. E. O'BRIE/S, Proprietor 

San Diego, Cal. 



Centrally Located 

Fisher Opera House and Chamber of Commerce opposite 

Elevator and all Conveniences 



RATES, $2.50 PER DAY AND UP 



Strictly First Class 




!lHir£L 
\lim;mmmik. 




The reader is cheerfully referred to the fore- 
going pages for the most helpful information 
that has ever been published concerning Califor- 
nia. The State's ablest writers in the several 
departments represented have given the subjects 
discussed their best thought, and the result is a 
wonderful wealth of knowledge in condensed and 
convenient form. 

But the serious side only is painted ; and, as 
pleasure must be a part of every well-ordered 
life, attention is invited to the following few 
paragraphs as welcome hints of what the State 
affords of an unusual character to please and 
entertain. _ «™ 

Yosemite Valley is a stupendous and pic- 
turesque chasm in the heart of the Sierra Nevada, 
due east from San Francisco by air line about 
155 miles. Its base is the tortuous bed of the 
Merced River, about six miles long and varying 
in width from one-quarter to three-quarters of a mile. The features that make it so wonderful and 
have earned its world-wide fame are its bold and irregular granite walls, rising abruptly almost verti- 
cally one-half to three-quarters of a mile, and assuming inconceivably picturesque forms. Numberless 
cataracts, some plunging from dizzy heights of 3,000 feet, in many places a heavy forest growth, 
everywhere the luxuriant flora of the Sierras, are Nature's matchless adornment that complete 
a scene of indescribable grandeur and charm. 

The touring season opens in April and closes in October. Distance from San Francisco, 188 
miles by rail and 63 miles by stage. Time of trip going, about 45 hours. Not less than four days 

should be taken for the round trip. Pullman sleeper from San Fran- 
cisco daily during the season. Hotel accommodations in the valley and 
en route ample. 

A distinguished cosmopolitan once writing of California thus 
expressed his admiration of one of its famous attractions: "See all 
you can, but if your limit is to be one thing only, let that be Monterey 
and the Hotel del Monte." Whether all will agree with him or not 

may depend upon taste, but a visit 
,0 .00 .. „ .w, . ,, n „ „ , there will remove all doubt as to the 

' V cause of his enthusiasm. Experi- 

'^ .,\ , enced globetrotters from all parts of 

the world have unhesitatingly pro- 
claimed it the most beautiful and 
charming place in the world. 

The trip is four hours' ride from 
San Francisco, and, if made to in- 
clude Stanford University, the Gar- 
den City of San Jose, Mount 
Hamilton and the Lick Observatory, 
Monterey. Pacific Grove, the noted 
eighteen-mile drive, and, on return, 
pretty Santa Cruz, the Big Trees and the Santa Cruz Mountains, will be one of the most absorbingly 
interesting short trips on record. 

The noted Shasta Route, connecting by rail the two prominent Pacific Coast cities, San 
Francisco and Portland, ranks foremost among the world's scenic lines. From the head of the 
Sacramento Valley northward more than 200 miles is a startling exhibition of skill and daring 
in railroad construction, and the rugged country which makes it so furnishes the sublime spectacle 
of mountain scenery that has made it famous. 

Trains are run so that this portion of the line is passed by daylight, and during tlli^t season of 
the year when out-of-door travel is comfortable and inviting. Observation cars with open sides are 
furnished. Every minute from dawn till dark reveals some charming or startling scene. 

The road passes around the western base of 
Mount Shasta, one of America's most inter- 
esting mountain peaks, and throughout the day 
the awful majesty of its cloud-piercing, snow- 
crowned dome dominates the scene. 

Many beautiful resorts are scattered along 
the line, among them a number of favored 
camping grounds. Sweet Brier, Shasta Retreat, 
Shasta Springs, and Mt. Shasta Camp, right in 
the heart of v^hasta's most rugged fastnesses, 
afford delightful accommodations for camping. 
Freedom of health-giving outdoor life, and end- 
less variety of recreation, have made them 
widely popular. Bailey's, Dunsmuir, Upper 
Soda Springs and Sisson have cozy hotels, a 
bountiful board and all the home comforts. 





Foremost am ong the popular re- 
sorts of the great Shasta Region is the 
TaYcrn of eastle Crag. It is 320 

miles north of San Francisco and is 
gracefully situated on a picturesque 
wooded plateau just under the brow of 
the frowning, battlemented cliffs from 
which it takes its name. Dr. Boteler once 
remarked about strawberries, " Doubtless 
God could have made a better berry, 
but doubtless God never did;" and 
^ the happy thought inspired one of the 
tavern's delighted guests to exclaim: 
"Doubtless God might have created a 
more restful, beautiful, enchanting spot 
than this, but doubtless God never did ; 
and doubtless it has never entered into 
the heart of man to select a location 
more picturesquely charming, or has ever 
planned and erected a summer home more perfectly appointed and adapted 
to every requirement for the comfort and refreshment of tired city people 
than has been accomplished at the Tavern of Castle Crag." This glowing 
tribute is fully justified by the facts. 




A delightful and popular trip is to the Geysers and L,ake County. The rail portion is to 
Calistoga, 73 miles from San Francisco, thence by stage to the Geysers, 26 miles, or into Ivake 
County, distance depending on destination. Both are picturesque and famous. 

The Geysers are amoug the noted instances of subterranean eruption, and possess great 
interest for sightseers because of these wonderful features. But as a resort the place ranks high. 
Its hotel accommodations are excellent, climate exceptionally agreeable, and recreation abundant. 

Lake County's chief attraction is a clear, beautiful, and completely mountain-locked lake, 
whose picturesque environment shelters such famous mineral springs health resorts as Harbin, 
Anderson, Howard, Adams, Siegler, Highland and Bartlett Springs, Glenbrook, Soda Bay, Lakeport 
and others. For aquatic sports, gun, rod and all the other outdoor pastimes, the equal of Lake 
County will be hard to find. The stage ride to Lakeport is 48 miles, and the other places named are 
mostly intermediate. 

Lake Tahoe is to California what Geneva and Lucerne are to Switzerland. Unlike the latter, 
however, it is noi the central feature of vast industrial activities, and, 
far different from those of Italy, its shores are not ornamented by princely 
parks and historic palaces ; but, better than either, it is in the Garden of 
the Gods, and the sublime majesty of Nature is supremely present. 

The Lake Tahoe trip affords a long list of delightful attractions. It is 

made either from San 
. Francisco by rail to 

Truckee, about 200 miles, 
thence 15 miles by stage, 
or as a side trip en route 
over the Ogden Route, 
to or from San Fran- 




Southern ealifor= 

nia is too vast and too 
thickly studded with rare 
attractions to be fittingly 
comprehended in a limit- 
ed space. Its broad ex- 
panse of orange groves 
and wealth of semi-tropi- 
cal verdure, its high condition of cultivation, its park-like cities and towns, 
its enchanting drives, its seaside resorts, and the balmy, perfume-laden 
atmosphere that pervades it all, have given this nook of paradise enviable 
prominence. No visitor to California can afford to leave without seeing 
Los Angeles, Pasadena, Mount Lowe, Redlands, Smiley Heights, River- 
side Magnolia Avenue, Santa Monica, Long Beach, Santa Catalma, San 
Diego, Santa Barbara, --all of them if possible, some of them without fail. 
Los Angeles is about twenty hours' ride from San Francisco, and its 
surrounding attractions are reached with remarkable ease and convenience, 
owing both to nearness and the completeness of transportation service. 
Visitors should make it a point to obtain time folders and other printed 
information from the local offices of the Southern Pacific Company, 
which spread out the whole country like an open book. 





The Missouri Pacific Railway is the popular line 
because its trains are the finest* Through vestibule 
sleeping cars daily* The finest chair cars run daily 
without extra charge* Through tourist sleepers be- 
tween the far East and the Pacific Coast are run 
weekly* These excursions are in charge of an expe- 
rienced manager* Every attention and courtesy 
possible is shown passengers traveling over this line* 

Ask any Ticket Agent for Time Tables, Maps, etc. 

Full information regarding rates, etc., can 
also be obtained by calling on or writing to 

L. M. FLETCHER, General Pacific Coast Agent, 203 Front Street, 
SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. 



MALONE JOYCE, Traveling Passenger Agent, 
SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. 

H. C, TOWNSEND, Geni Passenger and Ticket Agent, 

ST. LOUIS, MO. 




THE 



Writing Large Lines of Desirable Business. 

PJLJTINE 



Insurance Company, Ld., 

of Manchester, England. 
Resources, Security to PoUcy=holders, over $9,300,000.00. 

$200,000.00 IN UNITED STATES BONDS deposited with the Treasurer of the State of New 
York, together with over $500,000.00 in the hands of its U. S. trt-istees, for the benefit of policy- 
holders in the United States. $50,000.00 also deposited in Oregon, $25,000.00 deposited in Georgia, 
as required by law. 



United States Branch Assets, December 31, 1896, 



$2,836,236.28. 



CHAS. A. LATON, Manager Pacific Coast Department, 

(Safe Deposit Building) 

439 California Street, San Francisco. 



JOHN H. WISE, Chairman. 



LOCAL BOARD OF DIRECTORS: 

LLOYD TEVIS. WM. E. BROWN. 



E. M. ROOT. 



The 



ANGLO=CAUFORN/AN BANK 



( IjXlMII'IEia. ) 



LONDON Office, 

San Francisco Office, 



- - - - 3 Angel. Court. 

N. E. Cor, Sansome and pine Streets. 



Autborized Capital Stock, 

Subscribed, ...... 

Paid In, . - 

Snrplns, ...--- 

Remainder Subject to Call. 



$6,000,000 

3,000,000 

L.'iOO.OOO 

700.000 



DIRECTORS IN UONDON : 
BIGHT HON. H. H. FOWLEK, M. P. E. H. LUSHINGTON. ISAAC SELIGMAN. JOSEPH SEBAG. J. SIMON 

J. Simon, Mauaging Director, London. 

Managers in San Francisco : 
IGNATZ STEINHART. P. N. LILIENTHAL. 



Assistant Castiler. 




Hotel Palomares 



UNDER THE 
MANAGEMENT AND 
PERSONAL DIRECTION 



Has been Thoroughly 
Renovated and Reopened 

MR. B. F. NANCE 



The palomares in beauTiitul pomona 



Who is a Competent and 
Experienced Hotel Manager 

POMONA is charming winter or summer, 
with its orchard environment and its 
girdle of blue mountains. The hotel is 



commodious and home-like, and terms to suit you. Write for particulars, or at least write and we will 
send you a PICTURE) of POMONA. 



// is the Best! 

T F-T T^^ 

San francjsco Bulletin 

Prints the Best 

Financial and Commercial Reports. 

Has leased a Special Wire, so that 

all the 

^ published Fourteen Hours 

News of the World <t^"*,^ ''-^5''"" ''' '^' 



Morning Papers. 



The Weekly Bulletin, $1.50 P^r year. "^^''y* 50 



CENTS 
A MONTH. 



R. A. CROTHERS, Publisher. 

^^ff.' 2JJ Kearny Street, San Francisco, Cal. 



LEADING AMERICAN COMPANIES 



N.f f Fire Insurance r tt xi j /- 

atlOnal company °^ ^^^'^ ^^- 

Capital, $ J, 000,000.00. Assets, $4,120,260.30. 



S ♦>*»:*-» /^-fi/^T^ Fire and Marine of Springfield, 
pringlieia insurance Co. Mass. 

Capital, $1,500,000.00. Assets, $4,105,374,75. 



PACIFIC DEPARTMENT, 

Embracing the States of California, Oregon, "Washington, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado? 
the Territories of New Mexico, Arizona, Alaska, and Hawaii, 

409 California Street, San Francisco, CaL 

GEO. D. DORNIN, Manager. GEO. W. DORNIN, Asst. Manager. 



gCil^ 




Country 
Telephones 




The Sunset 

Telephone and Telegraph Co. 

of California, Oregon, and Washington, 
supply telephones on ranches and 
farms for 

J|>X«5U a month 

with free switching to the exchange 

towns when the instrument is connected 

(unless the same is a large city J, 



A mile of line will be built by the Company 
for each telephone, and it is expected that five miles 
of lines will connect five instruments. 

This plan places the farming subscribers within 
immediate reach of every city and subscriber in 
California to the number of 20,000. 

Neighbors can be called at any time, day or 
night, for aid in case of need, or for ordinary 
conversation. 




T-he Calls 



NEWS 



Never 



IS 



Contradicted 



Does that appeal to your judgment 
in selecting a paper for your 
home or your of[iceP 

When you read THE CALL you are up-to-date 
In current topics. 

BEST STAFF OF FOREIGN CORRESPONDENTS. 
BEST NEWS SERVICE. 
BEST LOCAL EQUIPMENT. 

Have you seen The CaW s new horned 

Look at the 

Corner of Third and Market Streets, 



IT'S THERE! 



W. S. LEAKE, Manager. 



il 



[ 




Edward Bellamy, the noted expounder of social ethics, has finally 
simmered the whole tremendous scheme of human economy into 
this one single word. He argues that it is the climax of social 
achievement, and means the birth of the millenium 



#»fflD^CoaDCM® 




But in the conception of ... . 

SUNSET L-ITV^ITED 

" Equality " had no place. SUPERIORITY was the keynote of its creation, and the many 
thousands who have enjoyed its superb service and entertainment gladly acclaim the success of 
its builders, the SOUTHERN PACIFIC COMPANY. 

During the Season of 1897-1898 it is the semi-weekly messenger between 

CHICAGO AND SAN FRANCISCO 

with a pathway through the continual sunshine, evergreen and fragrant bloom of the semi-tropics. 

3 DAYS ^^^'^ ^""^ GREAT LAKES 

TO THE PACIFIC OCEAN 

in a railway train of palatial elegance and perfect service. 



WEST BOUND. 


EAST BOUND. 


Lv. Chicago 


1.30 P.M. 


Tuesday . . . 


Saturday 


Lv. San Francisco 


5.30 p M. 


Monday 


Thursday 


" St. Louis 


10 00 " 


" 


" 


" Los Angeles .. 


10 30 A.M 


Tuesday . . . 


Friday 


" Little Rock .. 


9 10 A.M. 


Wednesday 


Sunday 


" El Paso. 


1 00 P.M. 


Wednesday 


Saturday 


" FoBT Worth... 


10.20 p.m. 


" 


" 


" Fort Worth... 


8.15 a.m. 


Thursday . . 


Sunday 


" El Paso 


4 00 " 


Thursday . . 


Monday 


" Little Rock .. 


9.10 p.m. 


*' 


" 


Ar. Los Angeles... 


4 00 " 


Friday . 


Tuesday 


Ar. St. Louis 


7.35 am. 


Friday 


Monday 


" San Francisco 


10 15 A.M. 


Saturday .. 


Wednesday 


" Chicago 


4 00P.M 







Take the train from Chicago in the depot of the Chicago & Alton Railroad; to St, Louis via 
the Chicago & Alton; thence over the iron Mountain route and Texas & Pacific to El Paso; thence 
over the Sunset Route to Los Angeles and San Francisoo. 



All the conveniences of a first-class hotel — library, smoking 

parlors, barber shop, bath room, ladies' parlor and library ( ladies' 
maid in attendance), observation parlors, and superb dining, with 
ample and reasonable service. No need of lunch baskets. 



NO EXTRA COST. 



H.S.CROCKER COMPANY, 

STATIONERS v PRINTERS ••■ AND v LITHOGRAPHERS. 



Steel ^ir)^ Copperplate EoSfaverjt 
BooK Bin<Jer5 an<J 
Blz^oHbooK f^aoufacturers. 



CO/AF'J-ETE Iff ALL DEPARTAyENTS.. 




ELEPHONE Orders- 



call UP 



Ma 



n 27 



Promptly Attended to... 

When desiring any printing of any kind — 
circulars, books and pamphlets, cards, letter- 



215-19 Bush St. heads, etc, etc. 



• When you want any stationery, blank books, 
M ■ 677 bookbinding, gold pens ; lithographed cards, 

215-19 Bush St. circulars, labels, billheads, covers, showcards, 

* or half-tone engraving, 



in 661 



227-29 Post St. 



If you wish any copperplate engraved cards, 
invitations, wedding announcements, menus, 
dinner cards, stamping of crests or addresses 
on the latest styles of correspondence papers; 
leather goods, dressing-cases, traveling-bags, 
pocketbooks, purses, etc. 



QBfanft qBoo^ (tttonufocfurers . 



(Beneraf <gngrat>crB . . . 
Office ^ufi^jf 2 "BeoferB 




215-19 Bu6h Street. 

227-29 Po6t Street. 



Tke Texas « Pacifk Railway 



TO 

FT. WORTH 

DALLAS 

NEW ORLEANS 

HOUSTON 

GALVESTON 

SHREVEPORT 

LITTLE ROCK 

TEXARKANA 

HOT SPRINGS, ARK. 



P^P 




TO 

ST. LOUIS 

CHICAGO 

KANSAS CITY 

OMAHA 

INDIANAPOLIS 

CINCINNATI 

PITTSBURG 

NEW YORK 

WASHINGTON, D. C. 

BOSTON 



-AND ALL POINTS- 



EAST AND SOUTHEAST /, SOUTH AND SOUTHWEST 

The Route of the WORLD-FAMED SUNSET LIMITED 



Superior Service for both FIRST AND SECOND-CLASS PASSENGERS 
Elegantly Equipped TOURIST CARS to and from CALIFORNIA and the 
EAST WITHOUT CHANGE .♦. 

TOURIST CARS via TEXAS & PACIFIC RAILWAY ARE PERSON- 
ALLY CONDUCTED .♦. 



OUR RATES ARE ALWAY THE LOWEST 



FULL INFORMATION REGARDING RATES, ROUTES AND TIME 
will be cheerfully given by calling upon or writing 



E. P. TURNER, 

General Passenger and Ticket Agent, 
Dallas, Texas. 



T. F. FITZGERALD, 

Pacific Coast Passenger Agent, 

121 California St., San Francisco, Cal. 



When You Go 

TO SANTA BARBARA IF YOU WANT 

RELIABLE INFORMATION 
ABOUT REAL ESTATE 

OR IF 

BEFORE GOING THERE 

YOU WANT 

TO RENT A FURNISHED HOUSE 
FOR THE SUMMER OR WINTER SEASON 



BE SURE AND APPLY ONLY TO 



]cuf5Q'])rejyfu5 



The Reliable Real Estate Agent of Santa Barbara. 



% * 

I The Arlington Hotel \ 

% Santa Barbara, Cal. % 

* * 

* Accommodates 500 guests. Strictly first class. * 
^ The most even climate all the year of any spot on earth, * 
J| according to statistics. * 
^ Strictly fashionable summer and winter resort. ^ 

* * 
J| Write for particulars to E. P. DUNN, Proprietor. J| 

* * 

1% ^ 




E. farrelL. 



G. H. ARNOLO. 



Motel 

St.\Seorge 



GEO. H. ARNOLD, Manager, 



Santa Cruz, Cal. 



The Leading Hotel. 

Centrally Located. 



. : Everything New . . 

Furnishings first class in every particular. Elevator 

Special attention paid to Commercial Travelers. 

No extra charge for use of our commodious 
Sample Rooms. 



7VYISS PKLTV^ER'S 




A RESTFUL CLEAN HOME, 
BEAUTIFUL LOCATION, PERFECT APPOINTMENTS, 

Special Jtttention 9iven to Surgical and SfCedical Cases. 

Trained Nurses in attendance under the personal supervision of MISS TRUMAN, a graduate of Illinois 
Training School and a nurse of a large experience. 



Terms Moderate. 
Write for Particulars. 



J022 SO. FLOWER STREET, 

LOS ANGELES, CAL. 




BASSETT 6c SMITH, pomona and los anqelbs 



Room 2, Y. M. C. A. Building, 

LOS ANGELES 



"^OMOt^l^"'^'^^ 



■pOR anything in the line of Real Estate, write or call on us. But, say, 
" the Best Investment in California to-day is the noted ROWLAND 
OLIVE ORCHARD. Nothing to equal it. 

Then, again, if you want to get a bargain in orchards, we can sell 
you, at the Model Ontario, within one and one-half miles of the post- 
office, from 10 to 100 acre Orchards— Olives, Prunes, Apricots or Peaches 
—for $125 to $150 per acre; one-quarter cash, balance your own time. 



Anyhow, call and see ''THE OLD MAN AND FRED" when you come out. 



The Hiberinia Savings and Loan Society 



INCORPORATED 12TH APRIL, 1859 



©ffice, cor. Market, Mcailister and Jones Streets, San Francisco 

The objects for which this Association is formed are, that by its operations the Depositor thereof toay be able to find a 

SECURE AND PROFITABLE INVESTMENT FOR SMALL SAVINGS 

And Borrowers may have an opportunity of obtaining from it the use of a moderate capital, on giving good and 

sufficient security for the use of the same. 

OFFICE RS 

President JAMES R. KELLY 

Secretary and Treasurer ROBERT J. TOBIN 

Attorneys TOBIN & TOBIN 

Any person can become a depositor of this Society on subscribing to the By-Laws. 

Deposits can be made from $1 up to $4,000. Loans made on Security of Real Estate within the 

City and County 



ROY T. KIMBALL, President. 
CHAS. L. FIELD, Secretory 



The NORTON TANNING CO. ^ 



WOOL PULLERS 

AND 

TANNERS OF 



Sheep, Goat and Calf. 



TANNERY, 

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO. 

Telephone 7O08. 



OFFICE, 

312 CLAY STREET. 

Telephone 682. 



SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. 



lif ontia Jlit 6la$$ 





telephone main $6$. 



Tncotvoratea mi, 

mission Street, Cor. Spear, 
San Trancisco, ClaK 

€n)bo$$ind. Staining, Beveling. 

Ulttt. Scbroeder, 

President. 

Sold medal California midwinter International Exposition i$94. 



INDEX OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Introduction — By William H. Mills 3 

Plan of the Book. Influence of Environment, Rewards for Industry. 

Scope of the Contents. A New Agriculture. Summer Suns and Tropic Fruits. 

The Foundation of a Noble Commonwealth. 

Early History of California— By D. R. Sessions 7 

A Spanish Romance. Founding the Missions. The Bear Flag. 

Buccaneers of the Unknown Coast. The Pastoral Period. Capture of Monterey. 

American Occupation. 

Commercial Position of California— By William L. Merry 9 

Commerce with the Orient. Water Transportation. Climatic Factors. 

Rapid Transit. The Nicaragua Canal. Productive Capacity. 

A Limitless Market. 

Climate of California — By Prof. E. W. Hilgard , 13 

A Land of Many Climates. Mojave Desert. Agricultural Possibilicies. 

The Great Valley. The Trade Winds. Rainfall and Temperature. 

"A Green Winter and a Browtt Summer." 

The Scenery of California — By John Muir , , . . 16 

Redwood Forests. Living Glaciers. The Rose-Purple Zone- 

The High Siei'ra. Yosemite Park. New-Bom Landscapes. 

A King of Conifer* 

Californian Forests — By Charles H. Shinn 21 

How the Trees were Named. Valuable Timber. Giant Redwoods. 

Leagues of Woodland. Sugar Pine and Sequoia. Preservation of the Forests. 

Forest Zones. 

Resources of California — By General N. P. Chipman v . . 25 

Diversity of Products. Growth of Agriculture. Homes for Millions, 

Perennial Fecundity. Yield of the Farms. Manufacturing Possibilities. 

Exhaustless Wealth. 

Irrigation — By C. E. Grunsky 34 

Artificial Distribution of Water. Canal Systems. Advantages of Irrigation. 

Orchard Ditches. Storage Reservoirs, Advanced Irrigation Development. 

Flooded Areas. 

Condition of Gold Mining in California — By Charles G. Yale 38 

Placer Mining. Gravel Mining. River Bed Mining. 

Drift Mining. Pocket Mining. The Mineral Output of California. 

Quartz Mining. 

Mines, and Their Record of Production — By C. E. Uren 45 

The Mining Counties. Development of the Gold Ledges. Free Milling Ores. 

Great Depth of Mines. Gold-Bearing Formations. Mines that Produce Millions. 

The Mother Lode. 

Agricultural Policies in California — By Alfred Holman 47 

Peculiar Conditions. Specialty Farming. The Combined Harvester. 

Summer Fallowing. Californian Rural Homes. Information for Eastern Critics. 

Diversified Farming. 

Distinctive Features of Californian Horticulture — By E. J. Wickson , ., . 53 

Influence of Californian Methods. Scope of Horticultural Adaptations. Second Crops. 
Fruits of Every Clime. Belts of Special Production. Mellow Fruit Soils. 

Achievements of Californian Horticulture. 

Olive Culture — By Elvvood Cooper 58 

The Mission Olive The Olive as a Food Product. Pickled Olives. 

Imported Varieties. Olive Oil. How to Secure Profitable Results. 

Olive Planting. 

Citrus Fruit Culture in California — By I. N. Hoag 59 

Inception of the Industry. The Citrus Belt. Methods of Propagating. 

Soil and Climate. Cost of a Profitable Orchard. Protection from Injurious Competition. 

Output of the Orchards. 

165 



t66 INDEX OF CONTENTS. 

fAGE 

The Beet Sugar Industry — By Claus Spreckels 62 

Importance of the Industry. Californian Factories. Cost and Profits. 

Average Production. Acreage of Cultivation. An Assured Market for the Crop. 

Superiority of the Californian Beet. 

The Raisin Product — By William Forsyth 64 

The Fresno Vineyards. Cultivating the Muscat. Average Yield. 

How Raisins are Made. Eastern Shipments. The Demand for a Superior Product. 

Natural Sugar. 

Transportation in California — By W. G. Curtis 67 

Rates Regulated by Competition. TrafRc and Population. Advantages to the Shipper. 

Railroad Mileage of the State. Freight-Earning Capacity. Construction of New Lines. 

Comparative Facilities. 

The Canned Fruit Industry — By J. H. Flickinger . 72 

Standard of Superiority. Seasons for Picking. Quality Required. 

Processes of Preparation. Irrigation. Packing Fruit for Delivery. 

Cultivation of Orchards, 

Dairying Conditions in California — By Samuel E. Watson 74 

Foundation of California Dairy The Hill Districts. "Methods of Dairying. 

Stock. The Butter Product. Creameries and Cheese Factories. 

Grazing Lands. The Coast Range Districts. 

Poultry Farming — By J. A. Fincti 76 

Importation of Eggs. A Profitable Market. Favorable Localities. 

A Lesson Yet to be Learned. An Enormous Production. Elements of Success. 

Cost of Feeding. 

Flora of California — By Emory E. Smith ,77 

A Never-Ending Springtime. Blossoming Sand Dunes. Nature's Color Show. 

Gardens of the Desert. Varieties of Wild Flowers. California's Adopted Flora. 

Beauty of Sierra Canyons. 

The Live Stock Interests of California — By Chas. M. Chase 80 

Advantages for Breeding. Thoroughbred Horses. Nonprevalence of Disease. 

Beef Cattle. California's Proud Record. The Product of One Stock Farm, 

Exceptional Forage Facilities. 

Wool Husbandry in California — By John H. Wise . . . . ^ .^36 

Developing the Industry. Opportunities for Profit. Influence of Irrigation. 

Steady Output of the Product. Certainty of Large Yields. A Prosperous Outlook. 

Running in Small Bands. 

Indigenous Forage Plants — By W. S. Green 88 

Wild Oats. Bunch Grass. Mountain Valley Grasses. 

Varieties of Clovef. Alfilaria and Alfalfa. Quality of Land Indicated by the Forage. 

Sheep Pasturage. 

Religion and the Churches in California — By Rev. Horatio Stebbins, D. D 90 

( Education Hand in Hand with Value of Church Property. A Civilized Community. 

Religion. The Spirit of Religion. Universal Moral Sentiment. 

Early Religious Organizations. Ethical Foundation of the State. 

Education in California — By President Martin Kellogg 91 

Generous Support of the Schools. University Courses. The Graded Schools. 

Compensation of Teachers. Kindergartens. A Comparison Favorable to California. 

The Normal Schools. 

Political Status of California as Determined by Statistics — By Horace Davis ... 94 

An Historical Review. Record of the Elections. Party Pluralities. 

Early Democratic Ascendancy. Political Heresies. Principles that Sway Political Opinion. 

Republican Successes. 

California's Call to the Immigrant — By John P. Irish 97 

Economic Value of Climate. Manifestation of Industrial Energy. A Goodly Heritage. 

How to Succeed in California. A Nominal Public Debt. A Land v.'here Thrift is Capital. 

Fostering the Arts of Peace. 

California and the Insane — By Dr. A. M. Gardner 100 

State Hospitals., Insanity of Seaports. Narcomania. 

Lunacy Laws. California as a Sanatorium. Humane Treatment of the Insane. 

Insanity in Agricultural Districts. 



INDEX OF CONTENTS. 167 

PAGE 

The Lick Observatory of the University of California— By Dr. Edward S. Holden . . 106 

A Munificent Endowment. Regulations for Visitors. Cost of the Observatory. 

Site of the Observatory. The Big Telescope. What has been Accomplished. 

Accessory Instruments. 

San Francisco — By Edwin H. Clough iro 

Commerce of the Metropolis. Municipal Government. Cosmopolitan Character of the People. 

The Golden Gate and the Harbor. The School Department. Picturesque Quarters of the Town. 

Golden Gate Park. 

An Analysis of Land Values 119 

How the Land was Originally Obstructive Influence of Large Erroneous Impressions Dissipated. 

Acquired. Farms. Small Farming Possibilities. 

Valuation of Raw Lands. Land at Reasonable Prices. Natural Effect of Conflicting Interests. 

Viticulture — By C. A. Wetmore 124 

a Stranger at the Gate. The Grape of California. Water and Wine. 

The Man on the Porch. 'A Valuable Crop. A Philosophical Discussion. 

Economic Advantages Considered. 

Food Fishes of California — By David Starr Jordan 126 

The Salmon. Transplanted Species. Coast Fisheries. 

Varieties of Trout. The Local Market. The Canning Industry. 

Commercial Importance of the Product. 

Spanish and Indian Names ».,... ^ 132 



home office: 
318 California Street, 
SAN FRANCISCO, 
CAL 




One of the Most 
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MARINE 
INSURANCE. 




Home Office: 401 CALIFORNIA STREET, SAN FRANCISCO. 



WHEN YOU GO WEST 



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which offers so many inducements to the traveler and tourist. 



You will 



necessarily make l,OS oVu^PIP^ your headquarters, and will wonder where you w^ill 
7T o stop. You will select your hotel w^ith a view to con- 

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and reasonable rates. Let us then tell you 

The HoLLENBECK 



I 



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' '^Bmi^ 



THE 



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WILL MEET ALL THESE REQUIREMENTS. 
It is conducted on both American and European plans, and is strictly first class. 



AN EXCELLENT CAFE in CONNECTION WITH the HOTEL 

AND IN THIS, AS WELL AS THE HOTEL, 
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DO NOT FORGET THE NAME. The management gives special attention to the traH)- 
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A. C. BILICKE & CO., Proprietors, 
THE HOLLENBECK, LOS ANGELES, CAL. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



Guaranteed Values ' '" "^^ ^ " 

Liberal Terms 



RENDER SUPERIOR THE 



Life ^^o Endowment Policies 



OF THE 



Pacific Mutual 

Life Insurance Co. 



.pi ^- .f^-,-"-' 



ot^California 



They are backed by the 
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r. A, HOUSEWORTH, General Agent Southern California, 

Bradbury Block, LOS ANGELES. 



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